14 DAY TRIAL // Slain Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev may be responsible for three other murders in 2011, his own friends point out.
According to NY Daily News, Tsarnaev was linked to the death of his closest friend in the States, which took place in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The remains of 25-year-old Brendan Mess were discovered on September 12, 2011, along with those of two other males.
$5,000 (€3,850) were recovered in cash at the scene, after police found the men with their throats slit.
“Those three guys all had their throats cut, and they had marijuana dumped all over their bodies,” a friend of Tsarnaev's, wishing to be identified only as Ray, tells BuzzFeed.
Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office public relations rep Stephanie Guyotte does not confirm the alleged bomber's involvement in the triple homicide.
“We will continue to pursue any leads provided to us,” she states. The 2-year-old case has remained open in the meantime.
“At the time none of us would have thought it was Tam. It was just so emotional, and we thought we had someone else who had done it. Tam's name wasn't coming up at all,” Ray says.
He detailed that, although Mess and Tsarnaev were good friends, the latter went missing at the time of his murder and did not attend funeral proceedings.
“He was somebody who was in contact with Brendan on a daily basis. [...] Anybody like that you would think they would have been around.
“Tam wasn’t there at the memorial service, he wasn’t at the funeral, he wasn’t around at all. [...] And he was really close with Brendan,” he notes.
“That’s why it’s so weird when he said, ‘I don't have any American friends,’” he added, referring to an undated interview with Tsarnaev, which we also documented.
“He kind of had an accent, but I didn't think of him as that foreign. [...] He was sociable but kind of distant,” Ray describes.