The Staten Island mom who was murdered in Turkey was rubbed out by a “professional,” according to a local report.
Turkish cops believe Sarai Sierra was lured to the killer’s Istanbul home and bludgeoned to death before her body was dumped near an ancient wall.
“The murderer killed the young woman in his house and then knowingly left the body at the walls and covered it with a blanket," The Hurriyet newspaper, one of the country's most respected publications, reported Friday.
“His aim was to put the blame on homeless people in the area.”
The Hurriyet said this is the leading police theory about Sierra’s death, but emphasized this scenario is one of several that cops are considering. It was not entirely clear whether “professional” referred to a practiced killer or simply someone who was calculating.
The report came as Sierra’s broken-hearted husband, Steven Sierra, was bracing for a Valentine’s Day wake. It is also the 15th anniversary of the day Steven asked her to marry him.
The devastated dad, speaking Thursday before his wife’s body was returned to New York, said he finally broke the tragic news to his two sons — ages 9 and 11.
“I had to be honest, unfortunately,” recounted Steven Sierra. “I told them their mommy got hurt, and she died.”
Steven Sierra said he spared them the sordid details that have emerged the wake of Sarai’s murder, which happened while she was on a solo two-week photo trek.
Sarai was due to fly home from her trip on Jan. 21, but the 33-year-old mom’s battered body was instead found last Saturday near a stretch of ancient walls in Istanbul.
A Turkish man known only as Taylan K. acknowledged meeting Sarai through the Internet about four months before her visit. He told police that the two had sex on Jan. 19 - two days before she was found dead.
Ozkan Polat, an attorney for Taylan, told the Daily News that his client and Sierra made plans to meet again - near the Galata Bridge in Istanbul before her death. But Sierra never showed up, Polat said.
State Prosecutor Huseyin Kaplan told The News that the man is not a suspect.
And authorities aren’t too concerned about the alleged Turkish tryst.
“We’re not interested in whether she had a sexual relationship,” Kaplan told The News. “What’s important for us is who killed her.”
Investigators were now seeking to question a boarding house owner and a carpet salesman about the unsolved murder, another Turkish newspaper, Haberturk, reported.
At least 24 people have been interviewed by cops and subjected to DNA and blood tests in connection with Sierra’s murder.
Steven Sierra, 40, said he was avoiding media coverage of his wife’s stunning slaying — including the accounts of his wife’s alleged infidelity.
By Rich Schapiro In Istanbul And Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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