On the Turkey-Syria border ( CNN ) Hayat Boumeddiene is today among Europe 's most wanted women . The widow of Paris supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly , she is believed to have disappeared into Syria in the days leading up to the shootings in Paris . Since the attacks , security officials have been scrambling to trace her movements . But on January 2 , a week before her name was internationally known , security camera footage shows that Boumeddiene and a male companion cleared customs with ease at Istanbul 's secondary airport . Something raised a red flag with Turkish authorities , however , and the two were placed under surveillance . They checked into the Bade Hotel on the Asian side of Istanbul . They were monitored for a couple of days , but after engaging in what was described as `` touristic '' activities , the surveillance stopped . Female terror suspect more radical than boyfriend ? Following the Paris attacks , Turks officials alerted French authorities that they had already gathered some intelligence on Boumeddiene . The French provided the Turks with phone numbers that allowed them further to track her movements . Boumeddiene 's last known location is the city of Sanliurfa , along the Turkey-Syria border . Sanliurfa has become a key hub for transit into Syria . The touristic city has seen its population swell due to the influx of refugees from Syria 's civil war , and just about anyone can blend into the chaotic streets . From here , those seeking to enter Syria can find plenty of routes for the next leg of their journey . CNN spoke to two men in a town close to the border , both of whom are professional people smugglers . Over the last few months , the Turkish military has really cracked down on the practice , one said , his head wrapped in a scarf to hide his identity . But there are always security breaches and alternate routes to be exploited . The second man , his face obscured by a black cloth , told CNN that a woman dressed all in black paid him some two to three times the going rate to get into Syria -- right around when Turkish authorities believe Boumeddiene slipped into the country . `` She said ' I will give you 100 lira just get me to Syria , ' '' he recalled . `` She was entirely covered in black , like I am now . '' It was the first time since the war in Syria began in 2011 that either of them had taken a woman across on her own . The smuggler said the woman was of medium build , and guessed her age to be -- like Boumeddiene -- in her mid-20s . She spoke classical Arabic and did not have a Syrian accent . That , he claimed , is all he knows . `` I saw the 100 lira and I did not ask anything , '' he told CNN . What the woman paid is roughly $ 42 . On the back of a motorcycle , they headed down a dusty border road dotted with potential illegal crossing points . The Turkish military stopped the CNN team before it could reach the area where the man said the woman crossed into Syria . There is no way of knowing if she was Boumeddiene . But within an hour of her transaction with the smuggler , the woman covered in black was in Syria .
Boumeddiene 's last known location is the village of Sanliurfa , by the Turkey - Syria border . A smuggler tells how a woman dressed all in black begged him to help her cross .