American Sarai Sierra went missing last Monday, the final day of her 'trip of a lifetime' to Turkey. (Photo: Derek Fahsbender via AP) Story Highlights Footage shows Sierra two days before disappearance 
 
 Sierra took a side trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Jan. 15 
 
 Police are focusing on Sierra's travels and who she was in contact with 
 
 ISTANBUL — The New York City woman who vanished in Turkey was spotted on security cameras walking alone two days before she was due to depart for home, police said Tuesday. 
 
 The camera footage shows Sarai Sierra eating alone in the food court of a shopping mall near the room she had rented in a downscale part of Istanbul, police told the Turkish newspaper Zaman. She was dressed in jeans, a brown leather jacket and a winter hat, with her hands in her pockets. 
 
 Another image shows her walking along a main shopping street, wearing earphones. 
 
 That was on Jan. 20, two days before Sierra, 33, was due to fly back to Newark and rejoin her husband and two young children at their Staten Island home. She had traveled to Turkey for what friends described as a "dream trip" to photograph the city. 
 
 Her husband, Steven Diaz-Sierra, and brother David Jimenez say Sierra was in contact with the family the day after the security footage was taken. They say it was her first trip out of the United States, but that she expressed no uneasiness about her situation. 
 
 Both men arrived in Istanbul late Monday to help police in their investigation. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted unnamed police sources as saying investigators were not notified about the disappearance until Jan. 25. 
 
 A street in the Tarlabasi neighborhood, a part of the Beyoglu district, where Sarai Sierra stayed, ís marked by old, run-down buildings, broken pavement and strewn trash. (Photo: Victor Kotsev for USA TODAY) 
 
 Police are focusing on Sierra's travels and whom she was in contact with during her trip. She had planned out much of her trip over the Internet, discussing it with contacts on social media sites such as Instagram. 
 
 Sierra took a side trip to Amsterdam from Istanbul on Jan. 15. She stayed only one day before arriving in Munich on Jan. 16. She remained there for three days and returned to Istanbul on Jan. 19. 
 
 Diaz-Sierra told the Staten Island Advance that his wife had been in contact over the Internet with a Dutch tour guide she had met in Istanbul. She rented a room from Yigit Yetmez, a student at the local Bilgi University who said he rented his spare room out to Sierra after they connected on the Internet, according to Turkish news media. 
 
 Although the Beyoglu neighborhood in which Sierra was staying is an upscale area full of nightlife and historic landmarks, Komurcu Zeynel Street, where her room is located, is one of the more dangerous parts of the district. The district is home to immigrant communities made up of Roma and Africans, and it is known for heroin dealing and prostitution. 
 
 "No pictures, no pictures, goodbye," men from a nearby café shouted at journalists walking by to photograph the apartment where Sierra stayed on 20 Kömürcü Zeynel St. 
 
 Contributing: Peter Carvill in Berlin 
 
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 Turkish authorities released surveillance video today taken two days before a New York woman missing in the country was due to return home, and interviewed her husband in hopes of aiding the investigation, according to local reports. 
 
 The surveillance footage, which was taken on Jan. 20, according to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, shows Sarai Sierra, 33, eating alone in a food court and walking around the mall, which is located near her hostel. Another video shows Sierra walking along a shopping street and wearing earphones, the Associated Press reported. 
 
 Sierra's husband, Steven Sierra, and her brother, David Jimenez, arrived in Istanbul Monday. Steven Sierra met with U.S. officials today and was interviewed by Turkish authorities, according to local media. 
 
 The New York City mother, who has two young boys, traveled to Turkey alone on Jan. 7 after a friend had to cancel. Sierra, who is an avid photographer, planned to document her dream vacation with her camera. 
 
 "It was her first time outside of the United States, and every day while she was there she pretty much kept in contact with us, letting us know what she was up to, where she was going, whether it be through texting or whether it be through video chat, she was touching base with us," Steven Sierra told ABC News before he departed for Istanbul. 
 
 Sierra took two side trips, to Amsterdam and Munich, before returning to Turkey, but kept in contact with her family the entire time, a family friend told ABC News. 
 
 She was supposed to fly back to the United States on Jan. 22, but she never showed up for her flight home. When it came time to pick her up from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Sierra wasn't on board her scheduled flight. 
 
 Steven Sierra called United Airlines and was told his wife had never boarded the flight home. 
 
 Further investigation revealed she had left her passport, clothes, phone chargers and medical cards in her room at a hostel in Beyoglu, Turkey, he said. 
 
 The family said it is completely out of character for the happily married mother, who met her husband in church youth group, to disappear. 
 
 In a press briefing on Monday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said officials in Washington D.C. are "aware of reports" that Sierra was missing in Turkey. 
 
 "Our consulate general in Istanbul and our embassy in Ankara are working on the case, and they are obviously in contact with the family and with Turkish authorities," she said.
– Officials are piecing together the last known movements of an American tourist who vanished in Turkey last week. Sarai Sierra was seen on security video eating alone in a mall food court in Istanbul, near where she was staying, two days before she was supposed to return home. On the same day, the New York City photographer was later filmed walking on a main street in a shopping district with her earphones on, USA Today reports. The video is from Jan. 20, and Sierra's family says she spoke to them the next day. But she didn't board a plane on Jan. 22 as planned, and a Turkish newspaper cites police sources who say her disappearance was not reported until Jan. 25. Days before the video was taken, Sierra briefly left Turkey to visit Amsterdam and Munich; she returned to Istanbul Jan. 19. Her husband previously told ABC News that Sierra had been in contact with her family "pretty much ... every day while she was there."