Footage of Sierra’s final moments before murder emerges
ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency
Sierra is seen walking by a surburban railway in the recently released footage. DHA capture
Security footage showing Sarai Sierra, an American woman who was murdered in January while in Istanbul as a tourist, has emerged, Doğan News Agency revealed, March 22.The brief footage was recorded on Jan. 21, the day on which Sierra went missing, by the security cameras of the suburban train line connecting the Sirkeci railway terminus, in the Eminönü neighborhood near the ancient city walls, to Halkalı.
The footage, taken from two different angles, shows a person in pink dress thought to be Sierra, walking next to the railroad.
The confessed murderer, Ziya Tasalı, captured last week at the Turkish-Syrian border, reportedly told police during an interrogation that he saw Sierra walking by the railroad.
Sierra is thought to have encountered Tasalı a few minutes after the footage was recorded. “I saw her near the railroad. I wanted to kiss her; she hit me with her phone. I hit her back and she rolled towards the [ancient] city walls,” Tasalı had reportedly said during the interrogation last week. Tasalı, who faces a life sentence, has been transferred to an Istanbul prison.
Sierra’s body was found by police Feb. 2 near the Sarayburnu district after two weeks of intensive searching. She was laid to rest in her hometown of New York, on Feb. 15.
