The Turkish suspect, identified only as Ziya T, admitted he got high on sniffing glue and fatally beat 33-year Staten Island mother Sarai Sierra while she was on vacationing in Turkey in January, police said on Monday.
The long-investigated case that ended with Sierra's body found hidden near the city walls on February 12 has apparently been solved, according to the New York Post.
"I really don't remember what happened very much. I had sniffed a lot of glue," Ziya T said in Turkish, according to the Post. "I hit her with something heavy. I came back in the morning and she was dead. Her eyes were closed."
Authorities previously said the autopsy showed Sierra was killed by blunt force to the head with a brick. Ziya T had been hiding out across the border in Syria, fleeing to Hatay, before he was arrested coming back into Turkey this weekend.
Turkish police said they have surveillance of Ziya T. trying to sell Sierra's leather jacket,Turkish media reported. He was also spotted carrying the coat Sierra was seen wearing the same day that she was found with her head bashed in, according to Turkey's Hürriyet Daily News. Ziya T. had been the main suspect in the case after DNA samples taken from his two brothers and a sister matched those found beneath Sierra's nails.
U.S. authorities told the Post on Tuesday that she kept company with "a criminal element" while on her overseas trip, which began on January 7 to Istanbul, and included side trips to Amsterdam and Munich. She was scheduled to fly home two weeks later, but was not on the flight she was scheduled for, leading to an investigation.
Before her disappearance, Sierra regularly stayed in touch with her husband, two kids, as well as with remaining family and friends back in the U.S. She also reportedly had extramarital affair in a seedy area of Istanbul while on her trip, according to news reports.
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