The tragedy of this is this woman put her own depravity ahead of her kids well being. They´re the losers in this,no longer having a mom.
Traveling 10 miles to meet a stranger on the internet is risky enough without flying halfway around the world to do it.

After trying to read the article, whose quality made me skeptical of content, I was only left with a sense of the tragedy of loss for this family. The true story will out soon enough, but what we know now is that a family has been plunged into a dark well of misery. My heart goes out to them.

I´m sorry for the family, especially the children but for some reason I can´t muster up one bit of sympathy for this woman.

Not a very likely story...and of course, she is no longer here to defend herself. Many a professional woman has traveled alone. No one would think twice if a male professional traveled for 3 weeks on business and left the wife and kids at home. That doesn´t make such women tramps. I would hope that Westerners don´t fall for these sorts of accusations about women travelers. This is the sort of stuff that keeps Arab women behind the veil and chained to male family members.

Actually, the husband and children will be better off in the long run. It was a marriage headed for disaster soon or later, so the sooner the better. At least he can recover more quickly, knowing his wife was just a filthy pig.

So, was the sexual encounter "worth it"? Sad story, but an old one. Led astray, and by what and by whom?

This poor woman might have had sex with a Muslim but for sure it wasn´t consensual.

My fellow posters aren´t reading between the lines here and are reacting to the misleading implication of a sexual liaison. This is most likely a drug deal gone bad. Nobody flies to Turkey "to take pictures" with only an iPhone and iPad as cameras. And nobody in her financial circumstances flies to Turkey for a wild fling. The part of Istanbul she went to is known for criminal activity and drug dealing. Sex may have been involved as a secondary factor, or it may just be the alibi of the murderer, but the likely primary factor is drug dealing.

I wonder if they issue Concealed Carry permits in Turkey. Might have come in handy for this woman.

She was most likely a drug smuggler. How many scenic photos do you have to sell to make a trip to Turkey profitable?

Unfortunately, #4, she was ´unemployed´, had known money problems (bankruptcy in 2005), and apparently was seen primarily with criminal elements. My guess is she was either lured there for romance with this guy, and if she was it could well have been consensual before the killing, but he also could well be the or a killer; or she really was involved in drug trafficking. Unemployed married mothers of young children don´t generally travel alone to such dangerous places in her circumstances otherwise.

Agree w #8.

Interesting story. I first suspected she was spying.... but on whom, and for whom, I hadn´t decided.

But a nice, neat, foreign drug-sex-murder story always works to wrap things up and be done.

But things in that area of the world have escalated dramatically since Midnight Express. And that should be known to everyone.

Passionate about her photography? Really????

She was using an iPad and iPhone to take pictures.

That is an excuse! Hello???

No photographer would use and iPad, give me a break.

She was there to meet this guy she met online, he talked her into running drugs, after she did that, they had sex and he or his friends killer her.

When you have children, you have a responsibility to make decisions based upon their welfare. They did not ask to be brought into this world but when they are, they deserve parents who will give them a stable environment and put the children´s health and happiness above their own. It appears that the children will be the ones who suffer for a decision made by this mother.

#8 -- Yea, this is the part of the story that STUCK out like a sore thumb to me:

Her family, including her devastated husband Steven Sierra, have said she went to the country because of the photo opportunities. They say she used her iPad and iPhone to shoot the images.

I´m sorry but amateur or professional photographers do not take pictures with their iPhones or iPads. Sounds like a drug deal gone bad. I´m suspect of the claim that she had consensual sex w/the guy. Makes me think he raped and murdered her and that the consensual sex story is to cover his tracks via DNA evidence that they will most likely find.

Why this woman, who had been married for 14 years, decided to travel alone to Amsterdam, Munich and then Istanbul as her VERY FIRST trip abroad is highly suspect. The only thing I can possibly imagine is the lure of easy cash for a cash-strapped family. You almost have to think that her husband knew exactly why she went on the trip even after her friend (or was it her sister or sister-in-law) backed out at the last minute.

Sounds like the Turkish govt. trying to make HER the villain....plus it would be very easy to see if she had sex the day she died, consensual or not, via an examination of the body and an autopsy----was THAT done? The poor children and husband..........

Poster #4 has VERY valid points! Plus, we have to consider the sources of the allegations.

Right on #8 and I find it hard to believe that the husband was not involved.

I think it´s more likely money laundering...
Too many nations visited for drugs. Wonder why her mom went on tv to stress she was a Christian? Just seemed odd.

well said #14

...attractive young western woman...traveling around a muslim country... by herself...in shady neighborhoods...having sex...."taking pics" ...ends up dead...sounds like we have a Darwin Award Candidate

Stitching together a story about a dead woman that is based upon pure speculation and imaginations run wild.

Can no one wait for real evidence?

I alerted everyone yesterday not to get prematurely blubbery over this woman.

Some preferred to blubber anyway - - but hey - - if blubbering makes someone happy, they should fit in well with leftist demonrats.

Okay children -- the Ole Lady is gonna say what she feels...

When a woman decides to have children -- that puts her life on hold as she raises them. When they are off to college -- there´s plenty of time for travel and careet...

Now -- I know that´s not popular with all you boomers and off/spring of the boomers -- but that´s how I feel...

My heart goes out to these kids who will never know this woman who gave them life....because "she" had to do "her" thing....

LZK

It´s a sad commentary on today´s society when the headline is ´Married New York Mother´. I infer from that unwed mothers are the norm in NY so the aberration must be pointed out in the headline.

No matter how upset some seem to be that she is somehow slighted because males travel alone to foreign countries all of the time on business, her actions weren´t professional. Having sex with someone she met on the Internet in a place like Turkey is dangerous and irresponsible. I´ve been there and some places are a no no for any foreigners. I mean would you wander through some of the slums in the USA after hours, by yourself, no matter what your sex is. Some Mother.

As said from Day 1... This is not what it seems.

Because she has been unemployed since 2005 doesn´t mean she has had no job. Just not where they want you to know.

FBI took 4 months to got to Benghazi with a dead Ambassador...yet flew over immediately for this private citizen? Right...

Family let´s the host country cremate her? No evidence then.

Friend had never planned to go it´s reported...certainly are in a hurry to sell this sex story ...who flies over for three weeks and as many countries yet cannot afford a burial so sells pics... that same images can be found all over the Internet ..they are building a cover story...

This is either cartel business, clandestine or arms dealing.IMO
There is a David Jimenez (same name as her brother) listed who works in Global Intelligence, Homeland Security and the Millitary university...and another woman by the same name who made the Khalid Said video that started the Arab Spring riots in Egypt...

We know only that the global alert to find her means they really wanted to save this woman. Ever see that happen before? Other than that nothing is what it seems.

Doesn´t anyone watch Locked Up Abroad? This was definitely a case of drug smuggling. She most likely smuggled drugs to those other countries and then when she wanted to collect her money, they killed her. I guarantee the husband sent her to do the drug deal. This is quite common.

#7 get real

More poor journalism skills portrayed here. Did she have sex with a Turk she met on the Internet the day before, or did she have sex the day before with a Turk she met on the Internet?


Girl´s Hubby

#26, agree with you. Children come first, before anything else. They are kids for a short time, and that is time you can never get back. My dear mother used to say that the only thing you can´t get more of in this life is time.

I don´t know what this woman was up to, but I find it hard to believe that she was "taking pictures." She lives in New York, one of the greatest places on earth to take photographs--there is everything from skylines to bridges to monuments to beaches.

She didn´t need to go to Turkey, with side trips to Amsterdam and Munich, when she was supposedly broke, and the mother of two little boys, to take pictures. One story I read said that she and her husband had been rocky because she had an affair.

This story has been suspect to me from the beginning. Why was her body released to a church? Wouldn´t the medical examiner´s office have kept it until her husband claimed it? The quick attention of the FBI, as #28 points out, is strange, too.

I don´t buy the original story.
I don´t buy the updated story, either. Still too many details seem not to fit with reality.

I don´t have time or brain space to follow the ongoing revelations, though.

#32, I´d have to disagree with you about NYC. I´ve been to both NYC and Istanbul and Istanbul wins hands down; I can´t stand NYC.
Istanbul has thousands of years of history, it was the capital for the Ottoman Empire. It is also dangerous. All the clubs are run by the mafia. I was on holiday from studying abroad in Cairo when I visited Istanbul on a school sponsored trip. The locals warned us off from going down certain areas because of the "criminal element" and I was on the European side.
This story is not what is seems.

Just Muslims having fun with loose Western women, nothing unusual.

Sounds like it´s ripe for coverage by, say... Greta on Fox.

How soon will it become a book, movie, TV miniseries, etc... ?

Not to be cynical, but look at the interest that the "mystery" element generates here.
Has the makings of a tragic thriller.
Watch for the dollar value from the media for this... seems inevitable.

Sad... but all too true, also.

The man she met on the internet wasn´t looking for sex, he was looking for a mule (drug smuggler). Oh wait, in that part of the world...oh never mind.

Who paid for her trip ?

I love all the speculation... It could have been drug smuggling...it could have been for an affair...it could have been that she just wanted to go somewhere exotic and also meet her new "friend" (who might have turned out to be a creep who raped and killed her), or she just wanted a vacation and really did like taking pictures (she just couldn´t afford a new camera and so she used what she had) which she thought she could sell for a little extra income...

Who knows??...maybe we will find out the truth. I am interested to know what the truth is. Speculation is just opinion.

#36 -- Just rent Taken 2 -- it´s a close enough story and it has Liam Neeson kicking butt all across Istanbul.

Have any of you taken a look at her Instacanvas photos of Manhattan and Istanbul? They indicate to me a passionate amateur not without a bit of flair. One can do a lot with an iPhone camera.

She obviously went astray and was probably reckless. But there is something likeable and sincere about her face, and I agree with #24 - let´s withhold the condemnations based on speculation for now. Even her family would probably want that.

There is nothing "obvious" about this woman´s story except that she is now dead. The rest is speculation, some of it ugly and reckless in light of the absence of facts and evidence. Some guy´s remark that he didn´t and then did have sex with that woman is not evidence. Neither is a woman - married with children - traveling abroad alone (when her friend drops out) prima facie evidence that she isa bad person. Sometimes the things that I see posted here make me wince.

The only judgement I´m going to make about this woman is based on what facts are obvious. A business trip is one thing. But why on earth would she go on a vacation overseas alone & leave two children at home. Who does that ?

Prayers for her family.

I hate to break it to some folks but some men who say they had sex with a woman are actually lying. Likewise, some men who say they had consensual sex with a woman are actually lying. For some, an allegation that a woman had consensual sex is accepted without question.

If she was there to run drugs it didn´t work out very well since she ran nothing nowhere.

More likely that she went there for what she thought was romance and adventure that turned out to be murder. Poor fool.

Well I hope it was REALLY GOOD SEX. After all, she cheated on her husband, flew halfway around the world and then DIED for it.

What an idiot.