A State Department official in Istanbul said the agency is looking into the disappearance of Sarai Sierra, according to a department e-mail provided to USA TODAY by her friend.
The husband and brother of a New York City woman who disappeared while on vacation in Turkey are heading to Istanbul to search for her.
Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two, had been on vacation in Istanbul since Jan. 7, but when the United Airlines flight she was scheduled to arrive home on landed in Newark Tuesday, Sierra wasn’t on it.
Sierra’s husband, Steven Diaz-Sierra, 40, said by telephone Saturday night that his wife was supposed to go on the trip with a friend who then couldn’t make it, but she decided to go anyway.
“I’m hoping she’s not hurt,” Diaz-Sierra says. “I’m hoping she’s not afraid. I’m hoping she’s not in a situation none of us want to be in.”
Her brother, David Jimenez, told the Associated Press that he had no return date planned.
“I don’t want to come home without my sister,” he says.
Sierra, a New Yorker from Staten Island, had never been overseas before. But the budding photographer, popular for her photos of the New York City landscape on the share site Instagram, was drawn to Turkey for its bridges, its landscape and the melding of its European and Asian influences.
Magalena Rodriguez, a longtime family friend, told USA TODAY Sierra was excited to return home and share her adventures, seeing the sights and eating the local food, which included delicacies such as sheep’s liver.
Rodriguez says Sierra was last heard from on Monday at 9:20 a.m., when she spoke with her older sister, Christina, and told her she was going to visit the bridges in Galata, a neighborhood of Istanbul.
A U.S. State Department official in Istanbul said the agency is looking into the disappearance, according to a department e-mail provided to USA TODAY Saturday by Rodriguez.
In the Friday e-mail, Eric Eilskov said his office had sent photos of Sierra and information about her to the head of the missing persons bureau of the Turkish National Police. He said his staff had met with the Turkish officer in charge of the case and also had spoken to local hospital officials.
Efforts to reach Eilskov Saturday were not successful.
Darby Halladay, a State Department spokesman in Washington, said Saturday he did not have any information about Sierra but would look into the matter. He had provided no further response as of late Sunday morning.
New York State Rep. Michael Grimm said Saturday his office is working around the clock with officials in the U.S. and Istanbul to locate Sierra and bring her home safely, according to the AP.
Sierra’s mother, Betzaida Jimenez, told the AP that Sierra’s father went to pick her up at the airport on Tuesday and “waited there for hours” with no sign of his daughter.
So began four days of frantic phone calls to local New York City police, the FBI, the American consulate and Turkish officials who speak no English, Rodriguez says.
Rodriguez says Sierra texted, e-mailed or spoke by Skype to at least one person in her family every day during her three-week trip. “This was a trip of a life time,” Rodriguez says. “She didn’t know when she would be able to go away again.”
She says Sierra was staying at a hostel in Beyoglu, an upscale area in the historic heart of Istanbul. She says she spoke with the hostel’s landlord, who says he last saw Sierra Sunday night when she was going to go out for something to eat.
After Sierra went missing, the landlord went to her room and found her passport, phone charger and her clothes. She hadn’t packed yet, Rodriguez says. Her family has tried calling her cell phone, but it goes straight to voice mail. She says Turkish police are now canvassing the neighborhood where Sierra was staying. They told the family they’ve sent her photos to local hospitals and prisons. So far, nothing.
At 5’2 and 110 pounds with hazel eyes and long brown hair, Sierra is pretty, a woman who is not easy to miss, says her friend.
But a native New Yorker, she knows how to take care of herself in the city, Rodriguez says. She wouldn’t have run off and left her husband of 14 years or their 11 and 9-year-old sons, says Rodriguez.
“We think she’s hurt somewhere,” Rodriguez says.
Sierra’s children do not know their mother is missing, Sierra’s brother told the AP.
The U.S. State Department advises caution on travel to Turkey because of the “continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests,” but it also notes that crime in Turkey is generally low.
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are lighting up with flyers about Sierra and posts for her safe return home. Sierra is a receptionist for a chiropractor’s office and college student, but many posting about her know her through Instagram or met her through meet-ups for photography enthusiasts like herself. Her photos of New York City were regularly featured under the made_in _NY hashtag on Instagram.
“This is crazy that none of us have heard from Sarai in 5 days,” wrote one poster.
Another read, “I’ll pray for you that you get home safe and hope to see your pic here smiling.”