The Middlesex District Attorney’s office may be looking at additional suspects who carried out an infamous triple murder in Waltham in 2011 that authorities have suggested is linked to one of the Boston Marathon bombers. This according to Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healey.
In mid September of 2011, the girlfriend of a man living at 12 Harding Street in Waltham made a grisly discovery when she entered his apartment. Brendan Mess and two other men were dead inside; their throats slashed and nearly decapitated. There was no sign of a break-in.
“A very graphic crime scene.”
Then Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone suggested at the time that the incident might be connected to a drug deal gone sour.
“This is a fluid ongoing investigation. It does look like the assailants and the decedents did know each other. We have no evidence of a break in the apartment and we have other indicia that the decedents and the assailants were known to each other”.
Five thousand dollars was left behind in the bloodied second floor apartment, as well as thousands of dollars' worth of marijuana.
But last year, the FBI released new information -- suggesting that two men with a very different connection carried out the triple homicide on this quiet street: Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his friend, Ibragim Todashev. It was all based on a confession Todashev allegedly gave the FBI when they visited his apartment in Orlando, Florida. Moments after the FBI says Todashev implicated Tsarnaev, the Chechen Immigrant and former MMA kick boxer was shot and killed by an FBI agent in a disputed act of self-defense.
In his alleged confession, Todashev named Tamerlan Tsaernaev as the other man who slashed the throats of Brandon Mess, Raphael Teken, and Erik Weissman. Tsarnaev was often described as Mess’ best friend and spent many hours in the apartment where the murders took place.
WGBH News has repeatedly asked the State Police, the FBI and the US Attorneys’ office where the four year old investigation now stands. Even though the State police and the FBI played a major role in the case, they say the investigation is now the sole responsibility of Middlesex DA Marian T. Ryan.
But the Middlesex DA’s office will only say the case remains open; a case that has focused consistently on the two men.
However, on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio , Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey—whose office is not directly involved in the investigation— told Jim Braude and Margery Eagen that she believes other suspects—besides the deceased Todashev and Tsarnaev— are being looked at.
“You mentioned two. I’m not sure it’s limited to two…. that’s the basis for the continued look.”
That the case remains unresolved is a question of concern for the families of the victims and for law enforcement, including Watertown police chief, Ed Deveau, whose headquarters sits close to the Waltham town line:
“We always want to see every crime solved and that was very troubling when it happened, and it’s still troubling now. That home is not very far from the Watertown line where those murders took place. So speaking with Watertown and Waltham residents, I think they just want to hear what happened, because it’s so much speculation what might have happened, what could have happened. Who was involved and it would be good for everybody if that could come to a conclusion.”
That other suspects are being looked at in the 2011 murders of Mess, Teken and Weissman comes as a surprise to some. WGBH News spoke today with a friend of one the victims who requested not to be named. He says the investigation has proceeded “so slowly and mysteriously” that any new development in determining who murdered his friend is “hopeful”.
