Late Tsarnaev Brother Linked to Triple Murder 'Cold File'
World | April 23, 2013, Tuesday // 12:11| viewsBrothers Tamerlan (l) and Dzhokhar (r) Tsarnaev, photo by 24 Hours daily
Investigators in Boston are probing whether suspected marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been involved in an unsolved grisly triple homicide of three men.
The story was reported by ABC News, citing own police sources, in the wake of the revelations about Tamerlan's violent nature.
The murders took place around the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Tsarnaev, 26, the alleged Boston Marathon bombing mastermind, who died in a fierce gun battle with police early Friday morning, had been training with one of the 2011 murder victims in an attempt to transition from boxing into a possible career in mixed-martial arts.
The victims were found in an apartment in the peaceful suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts. They had their throat slashed, their heads nearly decapitated. Their mutilated bodies were left covered with marijuana, while the murderer also left thousands of dollars in cash behind.
"We are looking at a possible connection with the suspect in the marathon atrocity and this active and open homicide in Waltham,'' Stephanie Guyotte, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County District Attorney, has confirmed to ABC News.
Boston Globe further writes that previously investigators had said that Brendan Mess, 25, along with Erik Weissman, 25, and Raphael Teken, 37, were killed on September 12, 2011, in Mess's apartment in Waltham, however, a relative, interviewed by the Globe, had said the murders took place the evening before, on September 11, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The murders happened after Tsarnaev was interviewed by the FBI, but before he made his six-month trip to Russia.
Tsarnaev had been close to one of the murder victims, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, investigators told ABC. The two had been training and sparing together in a local gym as Tsarnaev, a golden-gloves heavy weight boxer, lacked martial arts training, and Mess, an experienced jiu jitsu competitor, lacked boxing experience.
According to various reports, they were either roommates or lived just a few blocks apart in Cambridge, in the same predominantly Russian neighborhood, and Mess often crashed at Tsarnaev's apartment.
It was unclear if Tsarnaev knew the other two murdered men.
A Waltham investigator who called the murders "the worst bloodbath I have ever seen in a long law enforcement career" said Tsarnaev has now proven he had the propensity for the type of violence that unfolded two years ago.
Also according to ABC, one of Mess' relatives told investigators Monday they thought it was odd that Tsarnaev did not attend the funerals for his slain friend.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving suspect in last week's Boston Marathon bombing, has claimed that his elder brother Tamerlan was the driving force behind the attack, according to a report.
Dzhokhar has reportedly said that Tamerlan wanted to defend Islam from attack.
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