John Minchillo / AP

Betzaida Jimenez, mother of 33-year-old Sarai Sierra who was found dead on Saturday in Turkey, pauses before a news conference at a friend's home in Staten Island, on Monday.

The FBI is playing a significant role in the investigation into the death of a New York City woman in Istanbul while on a solo vacation, a U.S. congressman said Monday.

Rep. Michael Grimm, a former FBI agent, said U.S. investigators were invited by Turkish authorities to assist as they try to find out what happened to Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two who disappeared Jan. 21. Her body was found 12 days later, near the remnants of the city's ancient walls. Police said she had suffered a fatal blow to the head.

Prosecutors in Istanbul got a court order Monday for authorities to take blood and DNA samples from 21 people already questioned in the death, according to Turkish state media.

Meanwhile, her family was working out how to return her body to the U.S.

Sierra's husband, Steven, is in Istanbul, where he traveled last week to help in the search. He intends to accompany her body back to New York, but the family is still determining how to fund the transport. Their church and friends are working to raise money to help defray the costs.

Turkish authorities finished an autopsy Monday on Sierra and gave DNA samples from it to a crime lab, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. After that, Istanbul prosecutors got the court order but did not identify the possible suspects, the agency reported.

On Monday, police with sniffer dogs were scouring the area where the body was found for clues, it said. The Milliyet newspaper said the forensic lab will examine samples from Sierra's fingernails as well as hair and other samples from a blanket found near her body. It said some nail scrapings suggest she may have tried to fight off at least one attacker.

Sarai Sierra made her first trip overseas alone after her childhood friend, Magdalena Rodriguez, backed out. At Monday's news conference in New York, Rodriguez fought back tears as she said she wished she had not changed her plans.

"I wasn't working at the time and I didn't have the money to go," she explained.

Family and friends described Sierra as a devoted mother to her 9- and 11-year-old sons who volunteered at their school and worked part time so she would be available for them after school. "Every time I saw her, she was always with her family," said another longtime friend, Dulce Arroyo.

Arroyo ran across Sierra on a shopping trip two days before she left the U.S. and said traveling alone didn't appear to be a frightening prospect. Her friend was looking forward to an exciting adventure and spent most of their conversation talking about the murals and architecture she planned to photograph.

"She was perfectly OK with taking this trip on her own," Arroyo added. "She was thrilled."

Dennis Jimenez said Sierra tried to calm any fears by emphasizing that she'd be in regular contact via video calls and text messages.

"I didn't want her to go, but she wanted to go," he said. "Turkey was a land rich in architecture and ancient history, and she was very fascinated by that."

He added that she shared her photos online and checked in frequently. "You could tell that she was happy," he said.

Grimm said Turkish police still have hours of video footage to review as they piece together Sierra's last movements. A special unit of Turkish police set up to find Sierra have an image of her at Galata Bridge, which spans Istanbul's Golden Horn waterway and where she went on her last day to take photos.

The trip also included preplanned excursions to Amsterdam and Munich.

Betzaida Jimenez said her two grandsons do not know what had happened to their mother. They only know their father went to get her after her vacation.

"We're going to talk about that when he gets back," she said.

She recalled hugging her daughter before she departed and praying together for a safe journey.

"Just the thought that I'll never be able to hug her again," she said, pausing to compose herself. "We just didn't think a tragedy like this was going to happen."

Related: Mom of woman slain in Turkey: Her sons don't know

AP

Turkish men pin up a photo of Sarai Sierra, a New York City woman who disappeared while on vacation in Istanbul.

The cellphone of a New York City mom missing in Istanbul has been used twice since she vanished, a Turkish newspaper reported Friday.

Sarai Sierra, 33, hasn’t been seen heard from since Jan. 21, the day before she was supposed to catch a flight home from a two-week vacation.

But police believe the amateur photographer is alive because her phone was used for a Skype call on Wednesday and turned on again Thursday, the Sabah newspaper reported, according to the Turkish daily Hurriyet.

Cops briefly detained a man who exchanged online messages with Sierra after meeting her online four months ago, contacted her while she was in Istanbul and made plans to rendezvous with her on a bridge she wanted to photograph, Hurriyet said.

The man reportedly told police the two never connected, and investigators are now hoping to question three other people she corresponded with on Facebook and Twitter.

Sierra left for her first trip abroad on Jan. 7 — flying solo after a close friend dropped out of the prepaid trip, her family has said.

Her husband, Steven Sierra, said his wife stayed in close contact, talking to him and their children, ages 9 and 11, by phone and Skype.

The last communication from her came Jan. 21, when she sent her sister a brief message saying she would be home the next day.

When she didn't show up at the airport, her husband called her hostel, which said her passport and other personal items were still there.

Police uncovered surveillance-camera footage of Sierra walking around Istanbul during her visit; she appeared to be alone and well.

Steven Sierra and Sarai's brother, David Jimenez, flew to Turkey earlier this week and turned over her online communications to police.

"I don't want to come home without my sister," Jimenez told NBC New York before the trip.

A fraternity at the University of Kansas has been suspended by the national organization after reports that a turkey was thrown around like a football, choked and then killed at a frat house party.

"We were a little shocked by the accounts that are being shared," said Martin Cobb, spokesman for the Beta Theta Pi national organization, told the Lawrence Journal-World.

Cobb said the national organization has suspended the KU chapter indefinitely while university and local officials investigate the incident at an end-of-semester dance and dinner party at the fraternity house in Lawrence, Kan.

Lawrence police said they were called to the fraternity house Friday night to investigate a report of possible animal cruelty involving a live turkey.

Police determined that the turkey, which had been in a cage, somehow got loose and was "chased and abused by several individuals present at the party, seriously injuring the animal," Sgt. Trent McKinley told the Journal-World. Someone killed the turkey, "stating he did so to end its suffering," McKinley said, according to the newspaper.

Witnesses told The Kansas City Star that the turkey was chased through a crowd of about 150 people, thrown around like a football and choked. At one point its wing snapped, and then its leg, according to witness reports.

Chad Boydston, a trumpet player for a blues band that was hired to play at the party, said the turkey was running around scared. “It turned into a blood lust,” he told the Star. “We saw a mob mentality.”

Band member Lisa McKenzie said she jumped off the stage and begged the students to let her have the bird. “They told me it was none of my business,” McKenzie told the Star. She said she was the one who called police.

It’s unclear what happened to the bird after it died.

No one was arrested at the party.

McKinley said the case will be forwarded to the Douglas County district attorney, who will consider whether charges are warranted after the investigation is complete.

The KU Beta Theta Pi chapter issued a statement on Wednesday through the national organization saying it supported its indefinite suspension:

Members of the KU and Lawrence Community:

The University of Kansas Chapter of Beta Theta Pi and its alumni take seriously the allegations of mistreatment of animals in conjunction with our annual end-of-the-semester formal dinner and dance last Friday night. It is for that reason that our chapter supports and accepts our General Fraternity’s decision to immediately suspend our chapter’s activities until a thorough investigation has been completed. We are fully cooperating with the University of Kansas, Beta Theta Pi General Fraternity and legal authorities. The alleged behavior conflicts sharply with our values of integrity, responsible conduct and trust, and pending the outcome of the investigation, we are committed to holding responsible parties accountable for any inappropriate behavior.

In announcing the suspension, the national fraternity said:

“Beta Theta Pi prides itself on being an organization that holds its members to the highest standards of personal and group conduct. The risk management policy and other rules and regulations of the General Fraternity, the University and the state of Kansas provide the framework for those standards. In light of the recent incident at the chapter’s semester-end formal dinner and dance, the chapter’s ability to operate in the constructs of those regulations has been called into question.

It is expected that the General Fraternity and the Alpha Nu chapter will coordinate an initial investigation to determine what occurred the evening of the incident. Further, we expect that the chapter will comply fully with University and local officials during their investigations. All chapter activities are suspended until a complete investigation has been completed.”

In a statement, the University of Kansas said it expects anyone with information about the incident to cooperate fully with investigators. “Behavior such as that reported is reprehensible and is not what KU would expect from its students,” the university said.

The Kansas turkey death was the latest in a string of bad-news incidents involving college fraternities.

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Northern Illinois University was suspended and its members could face hazing charges after a 19-year-old NIU student was found dead on Nov. 2 in the fraternity house following a night of heavy drinking.  An autopsy concluded he died of cardiac arrhythmia triggered by alcohol. 

A West Virginia University fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, was permanently suspended from campus in November after an alleged hazing incident involving late-night drinking at the chapter house.

In October, the University of Alabama suspended all fraternity pledgeship activities after hazing allegations were made against 10 fraternities. 

The hazing death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion in 2011 put renewed focus on the problem. A medical examiner ruled Champion's death a homicide, and former members of the historically black college's "Marching 100" band face felony hazing charges stemming from the death.

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Two Florida men are accused of using a bow and arrow to kill a family’s 30-pound pet turkey so they could eat it for Thanksgiving.

Joshua W. Anderson, 19, and Jacob H. Provo, 18, are charged with armed burglary, armed trespassing, theft of livestock and animal cruelty.

Santa Rosa County sheriff’s deputies arrested the pair on Monday as they were on their way to butcher the dead bird, the Pensacola News Journal reported.

Tom the turkey was among dozens of animals that Brian and Christa Caponi kept on their six-acre property in Gulf Breeze, a suburb of Pensacola, Fla.

 “He was a family pet,” Christa Caponi told the News Journal. “It was like having a normal family dog.”

The bird was missing when Brian Caponi got up early Monday to feed the animals. Thieves left behind a trail of blood and feathers. A security camera on the property captured video of one man stealing the turkey and another running along the fence line.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

According to the arrest report, Provo, who lives near the Caponis, admitted entering the pen and shooting his neighbor’s turkey with a bow and arrow. The pair said that they planned to eat Tom for Thanksgiving, the News Journal reported.

The turkey’s body was found in the back of Provo’s pickup, investigators said.

The Caponis are mourning the loss of Tom, which they described as special among their menagerie of cats, goats, a dog, chickens and roosters.

“He was a family pet,”Christa Caponi told the newspaper. “It was like having a normal family dog.”

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Wild turkeys seem to know that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and they are fighting back in Connecticut.

Marcos Carreras, or rather his car, has been the victim of wild turkeys not once but twice.

Carreras, of Farmington, Conn., was on his way to work at Kingswood Oxford School on Wednesday morning when one menacing turkey he refers to as "Frankenturkey" went after one car, then came right up to his driver's side window and actually pecked the door. 

The fowl encounter happened between Old Mountain Road and Talcott Notch and  Frankenturkey attacked on Halloween as well, Carreras said. 

Read the original report  |  More from NBCConnecticut.com

According to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, there are an estimated 35,000 wild turkeys in all 169 towns in the state.

It is unusual for turkeys to be aggressive, especially in the fall, said Michael Gregonis, a wildlife biologist with DEEP.

It is possible that this turkey was accustomed to humans because people had been feeding it.

Gregonis recommends that people avoid feeding turkeys. There is enough food in the woodlands for them to eat, he said.

You have to watch the video to see just how brazen the turkey is. Carreras' commentary and sound effects also make watching well worth your time.

COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Edna Geisler is a prisoner in her own home, constantly fearing the stalker who lies in wait for her on her front lawn. Her tormentor? A 30-pound wild turkey who she refers to as "Godzilla," reports The Detroit Free Press.

Geisler, 69, told The Free Press the bird has stalked her for two months.

The turkey lurks in her yard, screeching constantly, she told the paper. Even worse, when she's alone, the large tom turkey attacks her, she said, pecking and clawing at her hands.

"I'm afraid to go out of my house," she said. "I have to go to the post office at 6 o'clock in the morning to avoid him."

Eric Seals / Detroit Free Press

Godzilla the wild turkey walks around the front yard of the home belonging to Edna Geisler, 69 of Commerce Township. Geisler has been terrorized for a month by a wild turkey she named Godzilla.

Godzilla runs at her and bumps into her, clawing to the point of drawing blood.

"I got a terrible stinging right here," she told the Free Press, pointing to the back of her left hand.

Eric Seals / Detroit Free Press

Edna Geisler, 69 of Commerce Township stands on her front porch with the broom ready to shoo away the wild turkey she's named Godzilla.

"Godzilla" has developed a routine: Each morning he wanders in from the woods on state land over to Geisler's yard, which he apparently has come to see as his own. Geisler's busy street doesn't bother Godzilla, and doesn't stop him from fanning his feathers - usually a method of flirting with hens - but in this case, just another tactic for scaring Geisler: When he preens, he's as big around as a car tire, reported The Free Press.

Read about 'Godzilla' the turkey on Detroit Free Press

While Geisler is the main target, she's not the only victim.

A friend, Rick Reid, recently pulled into her driveway and had the pleasure of meeting Godzilla after opening the door of his minivan, said the paper.

Eric Seals / Detroit Free Press

Godzilla the wild turkey walks around the front yard of Geisler's home.

"He tried to come right in the door," Reid said. "He bit me on the elbow. He's probably 25 to 30 pounds."

In the evening, after putting in a hard day's work of stalking Geisler, Godzilla returns home to woods, where a flock of wild turkeys live, according to The Free Press.

Geisler is at her wit's end. Even changing her schedule hasn't outsmarted her stalker, Geisler told the paper.

"I slipped out and he wasn't there, but he was there waiting for me when I got back."

Geisler hopes Godzilla goes away by summertime so she can work on her garden.

"Every time I eat turkey I smile," she said. "I'd like to do that to him."

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