Murder In America - EP. 103 MASSACHUSETTS - The Boston Marathon Bombing (Pt. 2)

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

On April 15th, 2013, during the annual Boston Marathon, two brothers approached the crowd and planted bombs right at the feet of innocent bystanders watching the race. Three people lost their lives, 17 people lost limbs, and hundreds of people were injured. The bombing was one of the deadliest attacks on US soil since 9/11, and in this episode, we discuss the Tsarnaev brothers - where they came from, the religion they practiced, the trial, and the possible connection to a triple homicide. This is the story of the Boston Marathon Bombers: The Tsarnaev Brothers, and you are listening to Murder in America. - Try HelloFresh today- America's #1 Meal Kit! Just go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/state21 and use code STATE21 for 21 free meals plus free shipping! - To learn more about microdosing THC go to Microdose.com and use code MIA to get free shipping & 30% off your first order. - Stay Connected:  Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode is sponsored by Hocum, the new film that critics are calling Damian McCarthy's most unnerving horror yet. From the director of Oddity, Hocom stars Adam Scott, in a deeply monstrous horror that bloody disgusting called pure nightmare fuel that holds you firmly in its grip. Don't miss Hocom, the groundbreaking new horror from Damian McCarthy, now playing in theaters. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. is a journey. I know this. I think we all know this. Some days feel good and other days feel absolutely overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy sometimes to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. But the truth is, nobody has all the answers. And no journey should be taken alone. However, having someone with you to listen, to understand, and to support you can make all

the difference. I know that I'm a huge therapy advocate I've advocated for therapy for years. And if you want to give therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great place to start. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S. BetterHelp also does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences, and their 12-plus years of experience and industry-leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. And something that I love is if you aren't happy with your therapist match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations.

I've personally used BetterHelp in the past, and I think that if you're on the edge, if you're thinking maybe it's time to start therapy, I say just go ahead and do it. There's literally no downside because you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash mIA. That's betterhELP.com slash mIA. I really love to get dressed up every once in a while when I'm going out with my girlfriends or on a date night with Colin. But lately I've been trying to be more intentional with my everyday wear. And I've found that the best options that work for me are good quality, effortless pieces that will last me forever and they still look cute, which is why Quince has always been my

go-to. The thing I love about Quince is that all of their fabrics feel elevated. Their clothing always fits me perfectly, and I can just throw on anything from theirs and it looks so put together, but it's so effortless. Now that the spring season is upon us, Quince makes it so easy to refresh your wardrobe with spring pieces that feel as good as they look. I love that they always use premium materials like 100% European linen, organic cotton, and ultra-soft denim. And everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They also work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality and craftsmanship, not the brand markup. I recently have been on the hunt for a good denim skirt.

And so I went to Quince and I ordered their stretched denim miniskirt and I am absolutely obsessed with it. It is so cute. I've already worn it several times. I have made a ton of different outfits with it. And I could not believe the price of it. I actually had to go back and double check it because it is such good quality. I could not believe how affordable it was. But that's been my experience with everything I've gotten from Quince. They are so affordable and their items are amazing. And I know that. know you will love them too. So refresh your everyday with luxury that you'll actually use. Head to quince.com slash America for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash America for free shipping and 365-day returns.

Quence.com slash America. Following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover. and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. On April 15, 2013, during the annual Boston Marathon, two brothers walked through the crowd and planted bombs right at the feet of innocent bystanders watching the race. Three people would lose their lives, 17 people would lose limbs, and hundreds would be injured.

The bombing was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9-11, and no one knew who was responsible. In the days after, the FBI released photos of the bombers, but still, no one was able to identify them. Then, four days after the attack, the police got a call that a police officer had been shot to death in his patrol car. Then, right after that, another person called in saying that the Boston Marathon bombers had just hijacked a car. The police were finally able to track down the brothers, but they were not going to go down without a fight. As the police zeroed in on their stolen vehicle, a shootout ensued and a quarter. quiet, unassuming neighborhood. The older brother, Tamerlain Sarnaev, would get shot eight times by police officers.

And while his younger brother, Jahar was fleeing the scene, Tamerlin would get run over by the stolen vehicle, and he would be pronounced dead at the hospital later that night. But Jahar was still at large after fleeing the scene. The following day, a man in Watertown, Massachusetts looked at his boat that was parked in his front yard, and he saw Jihar Sarnayev lying down inside, hiding from the police. In last week's episode, we left off with law enforcement finally placing Jihar under arrest, five whole days after the Boston Marathon bombing. But even though one of the brothers was

dead and the other was now in custody, this story is far from over. In today's episode, we are going to discuss the Sarnayev brothers. where they came from, the religion they practiced, Jihar's trial, and the triple homicide that they are possibly connected to. This is the story of the Boston Marathon Bombers, the Sarniav brothers. I'm Courtney Browen, and if you can't tell I have the flu, so bear with me on this one. And I'm Colin Brown. You're listening to Murder in America. Good job.

Good job. I'm sweat teams, all command staff. Excellent job. There's no explaining the savagery involved here. There's no explanation for it. I spent the last several days looking at hundreds of hours of videotape. I got to see how brutal that attack was over and over and over again. I finally just want to say that the citizens of the city have been incredible.

They've been patient with us. They've endured an enormous amount of heartache and aggravation over the last four days. We're very happy to try to put this back together. Thank you. After finding Jihar Sarnayev inside of the boat in Watertown, Massachusetts, investigators brought him to the Beth Israel Hospital, where his brother's body was, and countless other victims who were still recovering from their injuries from the Boston Marathon bombing. When Jihar came in, he had multiple gunshot wounds, but the most severe was the one that entered

through the left side of his mouth and exited through his jaw. Before he was taken into surgery, he asked a law enforcement officer, where's my brother? To which he responded, you'll find out soon. From here, Jihar was rushed into emergency surgery, where the doctors worked on the man that did so much harm in their city. After his surgery, he would be taken to the ICU to recover. And over the next few days, FBI agents obviously had a lot of questions for him, but he couldn't talk because he had a tracheotomy and because his jaw was wired shut, so he had to use a piece of notebook paper and pencil to answer their questions. But they didn't really get a lot out of him. At first, he wrote out no, them proceeded to write the word lawyer about 10 times. But after a while, he really wanted to know

about what happened to his brother. And they weren't going to tell him anything until he answered some questions. So eventually he started cooperating. But even then, almost every time they asked him something, he would write things like, I'm hurt, I'm exhausted,

can we do this later? You said you were going to let me sleep. I need to throw up. Now, Jihar actually healed pretty quickly, unlike many of the victims that lost their limbs and family members in the attack that he and his brother orchestrated. And once he was given the clear, Jahar was taken straight from the hospital to his 10 by 10 foot cell to await trial.

And there was a huge relief throughout the city of Boston that this nightmare was now over. But everyone still had a lot of questions as to who these brothers were, where they came from, what motives they had, and what was discovered went way deeper than the Boston Marathon bombings. So let's take a look into the Sarniaf family. Anzer and Zubedat Sarnayev were a Chechen couple living in Russia, and in 1986 they would have their first child together, Tamerlind Sarnayev. Then two years later, they had a daughter named Bella,

and two years after that, they had another daughter named Aalina. And then finally in 1993, they had their final child, Jihar. And the families seemed to move around a lot because of the wars going on over there at the time. At some points they were living in Kyrgyzstan and other times they lived in Dagestan. But life was really difficult for them. In 1999, there was a huge war going on between Chechnya and Russia. And Anzer, the father, claimed that because he was Chechen, the Russians tortured him in one of their Russian camps.

And from there, they knew they needed to move their family somewhere safe. Luckily for them, Anzer's brother was married into the family of a retired Seattle, agent and the vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council. So this man had a lot of connections in the U.S. and internationally. I wasn't able to find any definitive proof that he helped them get green cards, but a lot of people believe that's the case. In May of 2002, Anzer, Zubanat, and their youngest child, Jahar moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts on a tourist visa.

Then, once they were here, they applied for and received political asylum. But their other children, Tamerlin, Bella, and Alina, were left behind in Russia with relatives. They didn't end up coming to the U.S. until a year later in 2003. And Jihar was only eight years old when he moved to America, so

it was a lot easier for him to fit in and adjust to the culture. He enrolled into the Cambridge Port School, but he didn't speak much English, so his teachers decided to hold him back. But surprisingly, he did a lot better than anyone

expected. so much so that by the end of his third grade year, they decided to move him up to fifth grade because he was doing so well. One of his teachers even put on his report card that Jahar had a quote, Heart of Gold. Tamerlund, on the other hand, didn't adjust as easily. When he moved to the U.S. in 2003, he was 16 years old, and most 16-year-olds are likely going to have a hard time

when you move from a different country in the middle of your high school career. But after he moved, he enrolled into a high school called Cambridge Ringe and Latin school. And according to people who knew him at this age, they said he was kind of nerdy, a little awkward, and kept to himself. And a huge issue the entire Sarnia family faced was the fact that none of them spoke a lot of English. So they not only had to adjust to a whole different country, but they also had to learn an entirely new language. And because of this, Tamerlin had a hard time making friends. Life was lonely here in the U.S., but he would eventually find his purpose,

in boxing, and through that, he would also meet a group of other Chechen immigrants who lived in Cambridge. The Sarnaya family expected to live out the American dream once they got here, but that wasn't really the case. The family was crammed into a third-story apartment building, and things were pretty crowded with six people living there, and there wasn't a lot of money coming in either. Anzor worked as a mechanic in the city, and Zubedat, was a lot of. worked as a home health care provider at first, and then she worked at a salon. But even though they

were working, they were still living a lower middle class lifestyle, and they were not very happy with it. They desperately wanted out of that situation, and to them, their best hope was their son Tamerlin. Since he was their firstborn, they doaded on him. He was smart, a hard worker, had a lot of confidence, He had big dreams of becoming rich and having nice cars. He even wanted to go to Harvard. But his biggest dream of all was to become a professional boxer. And he was constantly training for it. Some of his classmates would later say that he would even walk through the halls with his boxing gloves over his shoulder.

He loved it and he was proud because he was honestly really good at it. people who used to train with Tamerlain said that he had the perfect boxing body. He was tall, muscular, very sharp, he had good range, and he trained very, very hard. Now, in order to be an Olympic boxer, Tamerlin would first need to win the New England Golden Gloves. And then he could go on to nationals, and then from there you can start working on the Olympics. So there's a process. The year after he came to the U.S., he would win the novice title in the Golden Gloves, and over the next few years he continued to train.

In 2006, he would graduate from high school and enroll in a community college, but he didn't really care much about school and would eventually drop out. Tamerlin wanted to box, and his entire family was kind of counting on him to go pro. so they could get out of their financial situation. Now in 2009, when Tamerlin was 23, he would fight in another Golden Gloves competition. And apparently, Tamerlin should have been the winner. The judges, however, ultimately decided on his opponent.

The crowd was actually so upset by this decision that they booed. But there was nothing he could do. Tamerlin would just have to try again. the following year. By 2010, he had trained even harder, and he was sure he would win the match. And he did. It was a huge accomplishment, but he wouldn't be celebrating very long. You see, usually people in this position would then go on to compete in nationals. But they had actually changed the rules. Now you had to be an American citizen to participate in nationals. And Tamerlin wasn't, so his boxing career was kind of put on hold until he got his citizenship.

He and his father, Anzor, worked hard to get his citizenship, but time and time again, he was denied. And part of the reason he was denied was because he had been arrested the year prior for domestic assault. In the summer of 2009, Tamerlin was dating a woman named Nadine, and apparently they were at a pool party. and he didn't like how revealing her outfit was. So he started slamming her head into a car and slapping her in the face. Nadine called 911, the cops came. Tamerlund admitted to assaulting her, and he was arrested for domestic assault.

Now, the charges would later be dropped, but because that arrest was on his record, he was not going to get citizenship here in the United States. and I think this entire situation kind of gave him a bad outlook on America as a whole. He wanted all of these things, but he couldn't have them because he wasn't born here. He was an outsider. So when he was denied and he found out that his boxing career was over, Tamerlin was pissed. Like we mentioned, this was his entire life, and it was taken away from him just like that.

And from here is where he really starts to tap into his religion. And before we get into this, we really want to emphasize that we wholeheartedly respect everyone's religion. You know, that's one of the beautiful things about living in America is that we're allowed to have religious freedom here. And obviously, the religion that we are going to be discussing in this episode is Islam. And I think it's very, very important to remember that the majority of Muslims are very peaceful and good people who would never want to do anyone harm. But just like any religion, there are subsets of these groups that commit violence. So I just really want to emphasize that clearly what these brothers did for their religion is reprehensible. But do not let that affect your judgment on Islam as a whole, because,

Muslims already face enough judgment here in America, so please consider that while listening to this episode. But at this point, Tamerlin really starts tapping in to his Islamic faith. He started attending the mosque frequently, and he even completely cut out alcohol and marijuana. He was really serious about it, so much so that it kind of got out of hand. When the Sarnia family first moved to America, it was known. that they weren't very religious. People that knew them said that they definitely prayed several times a day, but as time went on, their faith grew, and Tamerlin started attending the Islamic Society of Boston Mosque in Cambridge. Now, believe it or not, the founder of this mosque was actually

sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2004 for plotting terrorism and raising money for Al-Qaeda. And another member of this mosque, named Ahmad Abusamra, went on to be involved with ISIS, so it did have radical ties. And again, like Courtney mentioned, the majority of mosques are very safe with good people, people who just want to worship and find peace in their own lives. But this mosque just happened to have radical ties, and we felt like that's important to mention. And as Tamerlin became more and more religious, he became increasingly interested in Islamic extremism. And within Islam is a term called Jihad, and it's often translated as meaning a holy war, with the evil within yourself or within society. Now, we are not Muslims, so we're not going to pretend to be experts on the religion,

but jihad is often associated with Islamic extremists. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it is, quote, often violent effort by some Muslim people to defend their religion against those who they believe want to destroy it, end quote. So around this time, while Tamerlin's boxing career is failing, he really resonates with this aspect of his religion, and he starts reading more about it and subscribing to different jihadist publications. And Tamerlund wasn't the only one in his family that is leaning into Islamic radicalization. His mother, Zubedat was as well. In fact, in 2011, the Russian government actually sent in a tip to the FBI,

saying that they recorded a conversation of Tamerlian and his mom, speaking on the phone, discussing jihad. And it was clear from their conversation that they were becoming radicalized. A statement from the FBI says, quote, the request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel

to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups. So on April 22nd, 2011, an anti-terrorism task force actually went to the Sarnia of Cambridge home and spoke with Tamerlin. He talked with them about his religion, his passion for boxing, but of course he denied any extremism. And with that, they left. They never questioned any of his friends, his wife, his ex-girlfriend, or even his mom, to my knowledge. They also didn't alert the local police about his potential danger, and they basically concluded that he wasn't a risk.

Russian authorities secretly recorded a conversation in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother. In another conversation, official said the suspect's mother talked to a man in southern Russia who's under FBI investigation in an unrelated case. Now, we'll get back to that in a little bit, But it's important to note that the FBI was well aware of Tamerlind Sarniaf based on the tip sent in from the Russian government. But around this time, Tamerlin would meet an American woman named Catherine Russell, who grew up in Rhode Island with well-educated parents. Her father

was an emergency room doctor, and her mother was a nurse. But after enrolling at Suffolk University, she met a charming boxer at a nightclub. Tamerlin was actually in a committed relationship with Nadine at the time, but that didn't stop him from pursuing the young college student. Catherine's mother, however, said that the relationship was doomed from the beginning. Tamerlin was a womanizer and often cheated on her, but despite that, the two became official later that year. It's also around this time when Catherine becomes very interested in converting to Islam. According to her family, she started dressing very conservatively, attending the mosque, and she also started distancing herself from the rest of her family. By the end of that year, Catherine was pregnant with their daughter,

and not long after she and Tamerlin would get married. But life was still not. great for Tamerlin, nor the entire Sarniaf family. You see, up until now, Anzor, the father, had been the breadwinner of the home, but in 2009, he was hit with a pipe and suffered a pretty bad head injury that made it to where he couldn't work, so now they were really short on money, especially since Tamerlin and his wife had a baby on the way. The Sarnayevs were struggling so much. Ansir and Zubodot even started stealing things and selling them just to make ends meet. Now, even though Tamerland can't compete professionally, he still loves boxing, and with all the struggles going on in his family, boxing was still a way for him to escape and let off some steam.

And the gym he trained at was called the Y-Crew Gym, and he met a lot of friends over the years while training there. Two of these friends were Ibrahim Todashev, who we will talk about later, and another man, named Brendan Mess. Tamerlin and Brendan were actually very, very close. They even considered each other best friends at one point. They both loved boxing and they worked out together at least four days a week for hours at a time, so they spent a lot of time together. Another thing they bonded over before Tamerlin really tapped into his religion was weed. Brendan was a known weed dealer in the area and he was the type that knew everything about weed.

He had all the knowledge of the different strands, and he always had the best quality. So Tamerlin would often go by Brendan's apartment and smoke weed with him. But Brendan's other friends and roommates were not a huge fan of Tamerlin. And it was kind of the situation where he didn't do anything specific that made them not like him. there was just something a little off about him. For instance, Brendan's friends noticed that anytime Tamerlund was around, he didn't talk much. He just kind of stood in the corner and observed everything.

And they thought that he just didn't contribute much to the conversation. Now, in September of 2011, the Sarnaya family was going through a lot. Answer still isn't working, and Zubidat was kind of fed up with him, so they end up getting a divorce. On following this, Anzor actually moves back to Dagestan, and the Sarnayevs are forced to apply for food stamps and cash assistance. And since Tamerlund was now the only adult male figure in the family, he felt like it was his responsibility to provide for them. But it was difficult. He was a college dropout with a failed boxing career, and now he was raising a family of his own. And in the same month, when all these unfortunate things are happening to the Sarnia family,

a tragedy would strike the town of Walton, Massachusetts. on the 10th anniversary of 9-11. On that day, Tamburlind's friend, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, was planning on spending the evening with his two roommates and good friends, 31-year-old Eric Wiseman,

and 37-year-old Raphael Teigen. That night, they all gathered in their Waltham apartment to watch the Sunday night football game, and it was just like any other night. Brendan's apartment was always the place where everyone would gather. And other friends were actually supposed to come over that night as well, but they ended up bailing. And little did they know that that decision would quite literally save their life. The details of this horrific night are still a little unclear to this day,

but here's what we know for sure. Eric Wiseman sent his last text message at 7.30 that night. and after that none of the three friends would use their cell phones. So sometime after 7.30 p.m. As Brendan, Eric, and Raphael were all sitting together in their apartment, someone came to the front door. There was no sign of forced entry, so it's likely that the men knew their visitor. But after that visitor stepped inside, chaos would unfold. One by one, the intruder walked up to each of a few of the people.

the three men and slit their throats from ear to ear. In fact, the force of the knife was so strong, the men were nearly decapitated. And one important thing to note is that these were big guys, who worked out all the time. So the fact that someone was able to take all three of these men down meant that they had to be pretty strong themselves. The three victims were also all weed dealers. So there was a lot of marijuana and cash inside of the apartment. But after the intruder slit their throats, they grabbed about a pound and a half of high-quality marijuana and sprinkled it over the victim's bodies,

clearly sending some sort of message. Then the assailant slipped out into the night without anyone noticing. The next morning, September 12, 2011, Brendan Mess's estranged girlfriend named Heba came by the home to check on him. But when she walked inside, she found a bloodbath. Neighbors recalled that he became running out of the house screaming, they're all dead. She was in hysterics. And shortly after, the police came to investigate the scene. Many of them would later say it was the most graphic scene they had ever worked. As they stepped into the apartment,

they saw the three victims lying down, nearly decapitated, with blood and marijuana all around them. Now apparently, Raphael's face wasn't injured, but both Eric and Brendan seemed to have put up a fight. Eric had a busted lip and Brendan had scratch marks all over his body, a puncture mark on the top of his head, temple, and ear, and he also had bruising around his lips. Now, seeing that the men were drug dealers, you would think that this was a possible robbery gone wrong, but the evidence at the scene proved otherwise. Not only were there eight and a half pounds of weed left untouched inside of the apartment, but there was also about $5,000 in cash left right near the victim's bodies. Obviously, if a rival drug dealer did this, then they would have taken both the cash and the weed.

But they didn't. And them leaving that at the scene was a clear message that this was not a robbery. So what was the motive? Besides the second floor apartment of this cream-colored home. They went to the second floor in a very graphic crime scene. There were three dead bodies in the apartment. The three were found with her throat slashed, covered in marijuana and cash. As the town of Walton, Massachusetts learned about the murders, everyone was shocked.

This is a suburban kind of town. Violent crime barely ever happens here, and people were scared. These men were nearly decapitated. Was the community in danger? But law enforcement reassured everyone that they did not believe the murders were at random, so there was no need to worry. You say there are two assailants that could be out there?

Based upon everything we know, it does not appear to be a random act. And based on everything we know at this time, it appears that the assailant or assailants knew the decedents. The reporters then asked if they thought there was more than one person involved, to which DA Jericho, Leone said.

So it's clear that they did have some evidence at the scene that they were looking through, but they were keeping it close to their chests. Now, one person they wanted to look into was Heba, Brendan Mess's estranged girlfriend. And this story is pretty interesting. Like we mentioned, Heba was the one who found the bodies, so obviously they had to look into her. And what they learned was that she was kind of a wild girl. card. She had gone through a lot in her life, and Brendan Mess was attracted to the fact that she

had a little edge to her. But their relationship was very tumultuous. Both Iba and Brendan were known to be very passionate and kind of hot-headed, so when they would get into fights, they would be big fights, and they didn't care who was around. They would hash it out right then and there. And Eric and Raphael, the two other murder victims, who were good friends of Brendan's, had actually been trying to talk some sense into him about their toxic relationship and how he should reevaluate it. Investigators were very interested to hear that about a week before the murders, Heba had actually gotten into a pretty big argument with all three of the murder victims.

And during her fight with Raphael, she apparently threw a knife, but she claimed she wasn't actually trying to hit him. Afterwards, Brendan broke up with her and Heba was angry, so much so that she smashed his TV and slashed his tires. So clearly Heba had a motive, and the detectives immediately questioned her after the murders. But when they sat her down and asked her about her breakup with Brendan, she said that they weren't broken up. They were just taking a break after a big fight. But her fight records show that after their fight, she booked a one-way ticket to Miami. Then, on September 12, the morning after they were murdered, she randomly decided to fly back to Massachusetts,

and her first stop was to Brendan's apartment where she found the bodies. And this was a little suspicious to investigators because what are the odds that she just arrived in town that day and immediately went to find the victims? WGBH learned that state police investigators visited Hilba Yaltili, a girlfriend and housemate of Brendan Mess. She discovered the bodies of the men the next morning. Investigators believe she knows more than she's let on. Now, it's unclear how Heba's interview went with police because they never released anything about it

and she was never charged with anything in connection to the murders. But in the docu series called The Murders Before the Marathon, a journalist named Susan Zalkind uncovered some interesting facts about Heba and her relationships. Apparently, around the time she was dating Brendan Mess, she was also involved with another man named Jamar Smith, and believe it or not, just two weeks before Brendan's murder, Jamar was actually shot to death. 33-year-old, Jamari Smith was killed during an exchange of gunfire between people in two cars. A man named Jeffrey Runyon was eventually convicted for his murder, so there's no mystery there. But John Mayer's murder happened at the end of August, then two weeks later, the triple homicide in Waltham occurred. And then a month after the triple homicide, another man named Jay Ed Asamwin, who was Heba's estranged husband, died on October 7, 2011.

His death was ruled a suicide by gunshot wound. But it's strange that three male love interests of Heba's were killed within five weeks. In 2021, the Richmond police told journalist Susan Zalkin that they couldn't comment on Jay's death because of its connection. to the triple homicide. But Heba has never been named a suspect in any of the murders, despite the strange connection. But back to the triple homicide. Now that Heba was ruled out,

investigators had to start looking at other suspects. And the main conversation around these murders was that it was the work of the Mexican cartel. Since the men were drug dealers, it was easy to come to that conclusion. But if it was the Mexican cartel, wouldn't they have taken the thousands of dollars in cash that was lying around the apartment? This theory didn't seem as likely, but the investigators were quick to tell the public that

they had nothing to worry about because this was a drug-related murder. And interestingly enough, during the press conference about the murders, the investigators were almost underplaying just how brutal the murders actually were. I mean, these men were nearly decapitated, and they were telling the public that they had nothing to worry about. And it's not like they were saying, don't worry about it, because we have leads that were following. They didn't have much to work with at all. Now, in the days after the murders, Brendan Mess's friends were overly suspicious about one person in particular, Tamerlin Sarnia. While everyone that knew the murder victims were coming together to grieve their loss,

Tamerlin was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he didn't even go to Brendan's funeral or memorial service, which is strange because the two were really good friends. At the gym where Tamerlin and Brendan used to train together, a friend of there said that after the murder, he went up to Tamerlin and offered his condolences. He knew the two were best friends, and he said it was the strangest thing. After he said, I'm sorry for your loss, Tamerlund didn't say anything in return.

He just gave him a very cold and almost dirty look. And something about that just didn't sit right with him. And apparently, multiple people actually sent in tips to the police department that they should be looking into Tamerlin in connection to the murders. But for whatever reason, they never once questioned him. They also never went to the gym where they worked out together, which is strange because Brendan spent a lot of time there. So you would think if they were doing a thorough investigation,

they would want to look into the people there. But that obviously wasn't the case. And it was very clear that the investigation. Investigators were more focused on wanting to pin this on a drug-related crime than they were wanting to discover the truth. Brendan's friends even said that when they would talk to the detectives about the murders, they would say things like, you didn't know your friends as well as you thought you did, almost like they were judging them for selling wheat. And it was strange because there wasn't even a lot of media coverage surrounding the murders. I mean, this case was huge.

In terms of how brutal the crime was, it's kind of similar to the recent Idaho murders, which had a ton of news coverage. this case wasn't treated like that. In fact, the media only covered the murders for about 10 days, and most of what they reported on wasn't about the kind of people they were or their character. It was mostly about how they were caught in the dangerous life of drug dealing. And then after less than two weeks of news coverage, they stopped reporting on it entirely. Many people in the surrounding areas weren't even aware that there had been a triple homicide in Walta, Massachusetts. And it's also strange because usually in cases like this, when law, enforcement doesn't have a lot of leads, they will ask the public for help, asking people to send

in tips. But that wasn't the case here. In fact, they weren't even following up on tips that they were receiving. For instance, Raphael's father told investigators that his son had gotten into a pretty heated argument with a Chechen immigrant shortly before the murders, and he wanted them to look into it, But they never did. And guess who is a Chechen immigrant? Tamerlin Sarnaya. So not only did law enforcement receive multiple tips telling them to look into Tamerlin,

they also learned that one of the victims got into a dispute with someone matching Tamerlian's description. And they still didn't question him. Another thing that's important to note is that anyone that knew Tamerlin knew he was very anti-Semitic. He was known to be very vocal about his hatred of the Jewish people and how he believed they were the source of the world's problems. After the bombings, investigators would search Tamerlund's home, and they found several anti-Semitic publications that were known to discuss Jewish conspiracies. And one of the conspiracies that Tamerlin really resonated with was the one that claimed that Jewish people were behind 9-11.

The terrorist attack that would cause his people to face a lot of discrimination here in America, and believe it or not, both Eric Weissness and, and Raphael Tekin were Jewish and very proud of it. In fact, they were also Israeli and had family members who fought in the Israeli army. Raphael even spoke Hebrew, and his father was a rabbi. So it's safe to assume that Tamerlin did not like them. And the three had met each other on several occasions, so Tamerlin definitely knew who they were. And all of that really comes into play when you look at Tamerlin's phone records

and social media posts in the month before the triple homicide. Shortly before the murders, Tamerlin had been messaging a friend named Ibrahim Todashev about how he wanted to commit violence in the name of their religion. Ibrahim was also Muslim and he also went to the same gym that Tamerlin and Brendan Mess went to. And Abraham would later admit that he and Tamerlin were in fact responsible for the triple homicide. And we will get into that more in a little. little, but it's clear that Tamerland was definitely showing signs of extremism leading up to the murders. He actually posted a link to Facebook that very month about how the U.S. was, quote, in an all-out war

against Islam and how Muslims need to stand up and fight against America. And it's important to note that the triple homicide took place on the 10th anniversary of 9-11. Considering Tamerlain thought Jews were responsible for 9-11, it seems like he was trying to send a message there. For three Massachusetts families, September 11th is at the same time personal and devastating. 9-11 is our 24-7. That's something we go through every single day, wanting to know what happened. In the Middlesex County, DA's office tells me this evening they are still actively investigating these murders.

Investigators would also find later on on Tamerlind's wife's computer, a Google search that read, quote, Waltham triple homicide Tamerlind Sarnaev. Then on September 18th, a week after the murders, another one read three men killed in Walton. Then the next day, there were two more searches that read, Men killed in Walton and Tamerlind Sarnaev. And it's always so interesting to see people's Google searches about themselves after they commit crimes. It's like they want to read up on all the news and everything, and it's always pretty incriminating. But if you still aren't convinced that Tamerland committed this crime, we haven't mentioned one very important detail about the triple homicide.

At first, it seemed like the murders were not financially motivated because of the cash that was left at the scene. But interestingly enough, within 24 hours of the triple homicide, someone would break into Raphael's apartment and steal a significant amount of money. I wasn't able to find the exact amount, but it's known that it was a lot. Raphael's friends would go to his place after the murders, and they said that the door was wide open and all of his money was gone, and they reported this to the police, but apparently they barely even investigated it. Which is just crazy because a murder victim's apartment was robbed within 24 hours of their murderers,

so you would think that they would look into it more, but they didn't. And this robbery is very important to consider because, like we mentioned earlier, the Sarnaya family was really struggling financially during this time. so much so they were living off food stamps in the weeks before the murders. But suddenly, by the end of that month, they somehow ran into a lot of money. Both Tamerlin and his brother Jahar were able to buy a computer, some nice clothes, and Tamerlin was able to fund an entire six-month trip to Dagestan, the same trip where he was attempting to find people to help him become radicalized.

So let's just do a little recap to go over everything we just discussed. It's widely thought that Tamerlin was responsible for these murders because his accomplice would later admit to it, but three men were nearly decapitated on the 10th anniversary of 9-11. Two of the men were Jewish, and Tamerlin thought the Jewish people were responsible for 9-11, so he was likely sending a message there. Even further, it's believed that he stole thousands of dollars from one of the Jewish victim's apartments, and that money would fund his trip to Dagestan, where he tried to become radicalized and began plotting the Boston Marathon bombing. I know it's a lot, but hopefully

it'll make more sense here in a little bit. But first, let's discuss Tamerlund's trip to Dagestan. There are continued to be questions about that six-month trip to Russia. The FBI had interviewed Tamerlin before he went at the request of Russia who thought he was a possible terrorist. Now, even though the FBI knew that he was a potential threat, he wasn't put on a no-fly list, so he was still able to leave the country. And I think Tamerlin expected to go to Dagestan and find people that would help him plan these terrorist attacks and kind of teach him the way.

But that wasn't really the case. There isn't a lot known about Tamerlian's trip to Russia, but we do know that he was trying to get in touch with these extremists and he wasn't able to find them. And he was kind of rejected by the people of Dagestan as a whole. He went there trying to prove he was this radical Muslim, but they didn't really take him seriously. So after about six months, he decided to come back to America. Now, since the FBI already knew that he was a potential threat, their system should have picked up when he came back to the

U.S., especially when he was away in Dagestan for a whole six months doing who knows what. But, for whatever reason, they didn't catch it. After the bombings, the FBI tried to save face and say that their text alert on him was expired, so they didn't catch it. To go back to Russia in 2012, the system picked up his departure, but did not pick up him coming back. Is that correct? That's my understanding. The FBI text alert on him at that point was more than a year old and had expired. But that isn't true. The Intelligence General Report proved that the alerts were still active.

They just failed to question him after he returned. He would end up flying back into the United States on July 17, 2012. And it was later admitted that if someone had looked into Tamerlund's travel, it would have, quote, changed everything, end quote. And by that, they mean that the Boston Marathon bombing likely would have never happened. When Tamerlin returned to Cambridge after six months, friends say he appeared more extreme in his views. Commissioner Davis, if you knew of a Russian intelligence warning that this means an extremist may travel overseas, and the fact that he did travel overseas and came back into the United States,

would that may not have caused you to give this individual a second luck? Absolutely. So after Tamerlans failed attempt at being radicalized in Dagestan, he came back into the U.S. and became even more invested in these Islamic extremist publications. One in particular was called Inspire Magazine and was produced by Al-Qaeda. And this magazine is very relevant to our story because it was specifically written in English. So these extremist groups could reach people in places like America. And it would state things like,

If you have the right to slander the messenger of Allah, we have the right to defend him. if it is part of your freedom of speech to defame Muhammad and is part of our religion to fight you. Other articles in the magazine were titled things like, Make a Bomb in Your Mother's Kitchen. And their main message to their readers was that you can really become a part of something big. You know, you don't have to be this random person going through life. You can do something radical for your religion. And you also don't have to be a part of these huge terrorist groups that spend years learning how to fly planes.

planes into buildings. You can learn how to do it by yourself, by, for instance, making a homemade bomb. And this really spoke to Tamerlin. After his failed trip to Dagestan, he decided that he could learn how to commit a terrorist attack right at home on his computer. And it's here, where he started planning his terrorist attack on the U.S. with his little brother, Jahaar. At the time, Jihar was a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He was described as a good kid, and he made friends pretty easily. He was also known as a weed dealer at his school. And after his brother, Tamerlan really started tapping into his religion,

he would get on to Jihar, telling him that he needed to stop partying and smoking as much and put more of his focus on his Islamic faith. And since their father, Anzer had moved back to Russia, Tamerlin was the only male figure he had in his life. It was known that Jihar was heavily influenced by his brother because of this. and were not at all making any excuses for Jahar. He was a grown man when he decided to do what he did,

but it's known that Tamerlin, his big brother, was a big influence on him. And while Jihar was in school, he and Tamerlin would get together and learn how to make these homemade bombs. And it seemed like they were dedicating a lot of time to this practice because eventually Jihar's grades would drop. His GPA was a 1.094,

and he was on the verge of losing his financial aid. But at this point, that didn't really matter to him, because he and Tamerlin's main focus was planning out this terrorist attack, and the warning signs were all there. In late 2012, after returning from his long trip to Russia, Tamerlin even created a YouTube channel where he posted videos under a category titled Terrorists. He also posted many videos of jihadist militants and other videos that suggested he was becoming more and more radicalized. But no one caught onto it, and the brothers continued to plan their attack in the city of Boston.

A few months before the bombing, in February 2013, Tamerlin visited a fireworks store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, because they're illegal in Massachusetts. He bought two large boxes of fireworks, including the lock and load reloadable mortar. He paid for one box of 24 mortars and received a second box for free due to a promotion at the store. So in total, he had about eight pounds of explosive powder, and he spent about $200 on it. On March 20, 2013, about a month before the bombings, both Tamerlin and Jahar drove to Manchester, New Hampshire, and rented two 9mm handguns. They also bought about 200 rounds of ammunition, and they target practice for about an hour. Around that same time, Tamerlin goes to a Macy's in Boston, where he purchases the five pressure cookers that he would later use to make the bomb. Now a major component to a bomb is the electronic portions, and Tamerlund had ordered

them online, but they actually didn't come in until the night before the bombings. And then lastly, they bought the backpacks used to conceal the bombs and a prepaid cell phone under Jihar's name, but with a different spelling. And that cell phone is what would be used to detonate the bombs. From here, Tamerlin and Jihar packed the pressure cookers with ebby pellets, gunpowder, and nails. They wanted to cause as much damage as possible. And they would. They were ready for Boston's biggest celebration of the year. The Boston Marathon.

That morning on April 15, 2013, the Sarnayev brothers left their apartment in Cambridge and headed towards Boylston Street in downtown Boston. They parked their car a few blocks away and walked towards the finish line with their backpacks. As thousands of people stood on the sidelines cheering on the runners, the brothers eventually split up, with Tamerlin walking about 200 yards ahead. He ultimately decides to stop in front of the Marathon Sports Store,

likely because there were more people standing around. From here, he places the backpack on the ground and calmly walks away. Then at approximately 2.49 p.m., the first bomb detonates. This blast would kill Crystal Campbell and injure many others. By this point, Shahar is standing in front of the forum restaurant, where spectators are looking in the direction of the explosion. Tamerlin calls Jahar on his prepaid cell phone, and seconds later, the second bomb detonates, killing Lindsay Lou and Martin Richards. After watching the terror unfold, the brothers walk back to their car and make their way to

whole foods, and that night they had dinner with a friend. I will call him by his last name, which is Madenov. But he was the one that ate dinner with. the brothers that night. And he said he never suspected that they were the bombers and that they were acting completely normal. But then he went on to say that they discussed the bombings and he mentioned how sad it was that a kid was murdered. To which Tamerlin replied, well, what about the US drones that dropped bombs overseas? Many children died from those. So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him." Afterwards, Tamerlin goes home to his wife and infant daughter, and Jihar goes back to school.

Friends would later say that on the day of the bombing, Jihar had acted completely normal. He attended classes, went to the gym. No one had any idea that something was amiss. In an interview with ABC News, Andrew Glasby, a friend of Jhars, would say, I can't believe he had the balls to come back and act like nothing happened. I thought it was just regular old Jahar. We had a typical conversation. He was not startled, he was not scared, he was not anything.

He was just the same old Jahar. It really makes me wonder, the person next to you. Are they really that person, acting like they are the best person? But instead, they're blowing up people? For the next few days, the brothers seemed to think they got away with it. That is, until their pictures were posted across every TV screen in America. Interestingly, after the news aired the photos of the two suspects, Jihar's friend D.S. Kadir Bav, who was also a 19-year-old UMass student,

texted him and asked if he had watched the news broadcast about the bombing. Diaz thought it looked a lot like him, and apparently Jahar responded saying, I saw the news. Better not text me, my friend, L.O.L. Then Jihar texted him again, saying that he could go to his dorm room and take whatever he wanted. Jahar texted two more friends, Azamat Tazeikov and Robel Filippos, instructing them to go to his dorm room and take his belongings because he was going to leave town. And surprisingly, they did. Dias, Azamant, and Val went to Jihar's dorm and discovered a backpack with fireworks, Vaseline, and a thumb drive. The fireworks had been opened, and it was clear that the explosives inside were missing.

Believing that their friend, Jihar, was a suspect in the bombing. The friends emptied the contents from the backpack into a trash bag and discarded the items in the dumpster behind the apartment complex. Diaz also took a laptop computer from Jihar's room but didn't discard it. Instead, he kept the laptop concealed and he never notified the police that he had taken Jihar's laptop. and they would end up getting in a lot of trouble for this, obviously. Azamat Tazeikov was convicted of obstruction of justice and served three and a half years in prison. He also returned to his home country of Kazakhstan after serving his sentence.

Ravel Filippos was sentenced for lying to FBI agents about being in Jihar's dorm room. He would serve three years in prison for his crime, and after serving the sentence, he agreed to be deported back to his home country of Kazakhstan. In a later interview, U.S. Attorney Carmen Orte's, would say, the concealment and destruction of evidence can have profound effects on the course of an investigation. Mr. Kadyrabayev knowingly concealed and disposed of critical evidence relating to the Boston Marathon bombing. He now faces the consequences of those actions, six years in federal prison with deportation to follow. But not long after the FBI released the Sarniav brothers' photos,

they would continue their reign of terror by killing a police officer, hijacking a car, and having a shootout with the Watertown police officers that would ultimately kill Tamerland Sarnaev. Then the following day, Jahar would be apprehended after waiting out the night inside of a boat. One thing we didn't mention was that while he was inside of that boat for hours, bleeding out, He wrote a message that partly read, quote, I'm jealous of my brother who has received inshallah before me, which means Allah's will. I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive.

It goes on to say, God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions. The U.S. government is killing innocent civilians, but most of you already know that. As a Muslim, I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body. You hurt one, you hurt us all. Now, I don't like killing innocent people.

It is forbidden in Islam. But due to blank, there was a bullet hole there, so I don't know what it says, but it ends with, It is allowed. End quote. After Jihar Sarnayev successfully made it out of surgery, he was transported to prison to await trial, and the city of Boston could now focus on what really mattered here, the victims. On April 22nd, a ceremony was held and a flag was given to the mayor signifying the return of Boylston Street to the city of Boston. The crime scene was officially cleared and now businesses

and residents would be permitted to return. A private crew worked well through the night to restore streetlights, broken windows, and clean any remaining blood from the streets, and by the next day, Boilston Street was reopened to the public. On April 24th, a large, Memorial was held at Briggs Stadium to honor and remember MIT officer Sean Collier. Over 30,000 people attended the memorial, including the vice president, governor, MIT staff, and students, and law enforcement officers from all over the country. By this point, pictures of the brothers were all over the media. So much of the investigative energy is now focused on understanding why these two immigrant brothers

could turn against the nation that took them in. The older son Tamerlan, who was killed, while he was in the U.S., he was a boxer. One was a wrestler, one was a boxer for a club team, so they were known in the community and not seen as anybody that was out of the ordinary. With all of the press surrounding the Sarnaya family, their mother, Zubedat decided to move back to Dagestan. And apparently, once there, she talked very highly of Tamerlan and how he was a hero for what he did. So it appears that he wasn't the only radical in the family, which just confirms everything the Russian government said when they sent in that tip about Tamerlian and his mom's phone call in 2011.

But as the world was learning of the Sarniav brothers and flashing their pictures across the news, there was one group of people who recognized Tamerlin. And it was the friends of Brendan Mess, Eric Wiseman, and Rafiessen, and Rafiessen. Fael Teigen. They said that when they saw Tamerlind's picture and learned that he was the Boston Marathon bomber, they were shocked. I mean, Tamerlin and Brendan were very good friends, and they had all hung out with Tamerlin on multiple occasions. And based on Tamerlin's actions after the murders, they always had their suspicions that he was responsible for the triple homicide. But now, more than ever, they were sure of it.

I mean, what are the odds that the Boston Marathon bomber was friends with a murder victim? At that time, there was still no movement in the case. The Middlesex Police Department said that they were following leads, but to the public, no one knew what was going on in the investigation. But soon enough, they would get the confession that they had all been waiting for. After the bombing, the FBI wanted to get into contact with people that knew the Sarniaf brothers, people they associated with.

And through phone records, they were led to a man in Orlando, Florida, named Ibrahim Todashev. We briefly mentioned him earlier in our story, but he and Tamerlin were good friends and worked out together at the Y crew gym, the same gym Brendan Mess used to go to. Now, after Tamerlin's boxing career failed, and he started getting more radical, he and Ibrahim became very close. The two had a lot in common. They were both Russian immigrants, both Muslim, and they both loved to fight. Investigators say their search for friends of bombing suspect, Tamerlund Sarnayev, took them to Florida to question Abraham Totishib, a native of Russia and a mixed martial arts fighter.

Now, like we mentioned, years before the bombings took place, Tamerlin and Ibrahim had been messaging each other about committing violence in the name of their religion. Then after the bombing, Ibrahim tried to delete phone calls he had with Tamerlin from his phone, but obviously the FBI can still see them. So the question is, why did he delete it? You only do that if you have something to hide. So clearly the FBI had some questions for Ibrahim. And on May 22nd, 2013, a little over a month after the bombings,

they made their way to Orlando, Florida to pay him a visit. FBI agents and Massachusetts state police officers went to Central Florida. There were cell phone records that a connection was made between the guy in Orlando and Tamerlinson. When the FBI came knocking on his door, Ibrahim Todashev was living in an apartment with his girlfriend, Tatyana Grustewa. The officials were invited inside, and at first, they started talking with Ibrahim about Tamerlin and the Boston Marathon bombing. But then, they bring up the triple homicide.

According to the officers, Ibrahim was very surprised when they brought it up. and after a few hours of being there, he starts to confess. He was given a piece of no-book paper and a pencil, and there, in his apartment, he starts to write about what he and Tamerland did that night on September 11, 2011. We are going to read you part of that confession, but certain words aren't legible,

so you will hear when we aren't sure what was written. My name is Ibrahim Totashev. I want to tell the story about the robbery me and Tam did in Walton in September of 2011. That was Blank by Tamerlin. He blank told me to rob the drug dealers. We went to their house. We got in there and Tam had a gun. He pointed it at the guy that opened the door for us.

We went upstairs into the house with three guys in there, blank. We put them on the ground and then we blank taped their hands up. But that's where the confession ends. You see, as Ibrahim, was writing about his involvement in the triple homicide. He was shot and killed inside of his apartment. A Florida man was fatally shot while Boston investigators were questioned him about the marathon bombings.

Agents and police questions him about his connection to the Sarnayevs. The FBI in the Massachusetts state police claimed that Ibrahim suddenly came after them and they had no other choice but to kill him in self-defense. But the details of exactly what happened were a little unclear. For example, some sources said that Ibrahim came after them with a knife. He was being questioned by the FBI when he lunged at an agent with a knife. Some sources say he came after them with a sword. Ibrahim Toshav actually flipped a table at an agent and then weighed a ceremonial sword at him.

And then other sources say he didn't have a weapon at all. According to law enforcement sources, Ibrahim Todashev was unarmed. Ibrahim Todashev was not holding a weapon when he was shot. From looking at the crime scene photos, it is clear that there definitely was a struggle inside of the apartment. There was a coffee table flipped on its side, stuff scattered all over the ground, and Ibrahim's incomplete confession was lying there with drops of blood on it. But it is interesting that there were different accounts as to what exactly happened. And it's even more interesting that all of the media surrounding this

focused a lot on the shooting, while barely even mentioning the fact that he was in the middle of confessing to a triple homicide that he in the Boston Marathon bomber committed together. Investigators in Massachusetts are taking a new look at an unsolved murder case from back in September of 2011. Those two brothers could be linked to another horror, a triple murder on the anniversary of September 11th. Now, about a month after the shooting of Ibrahim, on May 29, 2013, the FBI released an internal shooting review, which was very short and vague, and it still didn't include a lot of details, so people still had some questions. Now, the department in charge of investigating the

Walton Triple Homicide was Middlesex County, and their DA's office would later release a statement saying that Ibrahim's death was not in their jurisdiction, so they wouldn't be investigating it. So again, there's really not a lot going on here in terms of solving this murder. But Susan Zalkin did a lot of research on her own into this homicide, and here's what she found throughout her research. At the time of the Walton murders, Ibrahim was living in Boston. And while there, he and Tamerlin became pretty close. Like we mentioned, they both went to the Y crew gym, and the people there said that

Abraham was a very angry guy, both in the ring and outside of it. People that knew him said that he was crazy and would fly off the hinges at the smallest things. In 2010, a police report was filed saying he threatened to kill someone. Now, it's important to note that around the time of the murders, Abraham was not making a lot of money. In fact, he barely worked at all. So there clearly wasn't a lot of money coming in. But randomly, after the murders, he was able to rent an apartment

and he purchased a very nice white Mercedes. And if you remember, the Sarasurbanes, Aranaia family suddenly came into a lot of money after the murders as well, so much so that they were able to buy a computer and fun Tamerland's six-month trip to Dagestan. Now, something else to note is that Ibrahim also had a wife at the time, as well as a girlfriend. But his wife's name was Reni, and she was living in Atlanta at the time he was killed by the FBI. Susan Zalkind reached out to Rennie and she wanted to ask her about the vehicle, the white Mercedes. Rennie claimed that it was an Ibrahim's car, it was her car, and she was the one that purchased the Mercedes in late 2012, about a year after the triple homicide.

But that isn't true. Susan actually reached out to the person who sold them the car, and he, said that it was Ibrahim that bought it, not Rennie. He also said that it was definitely purchased two months after the murders, not a year after, like Rennie claimed. So why would she lie about that? Susan also spoke to Rennie and asked if she thought Ibrahim was responsible for the triple homicide, and she said that there's no way he could have been involved. In fact, she claimed that she had bank statements proving that Ibrahim was in Atlanta at the time of the murders.

Now, Susan asked to see these bank statements, but Rennie refused. So it's hard to believe her. And Susan wasn't the only person that Rennie lied to. She also lied to the FBI. They actually had proof that Rennie picked up someone in New York City on September 13, 2011, which was two days. after the murders. Now, the name of who she picked up is redacted, but it's pretty obvious that it's

Ibrahim. But anyway, after she picked this person up, she drove to Atlanta. But when the FBI talked with her about this, she lied. And in 2016, she would actually be indicted for lying to the FBI, but by that point, she had already fled to Russia. So again, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but it's assumed that Tamerlin and Abraham committed the triple homicide, stole the victim's money, and then Ibrahim got his wife to pick him up, and he quickly fled the state of Massachusetts. But there are some people out there that don't believe Ibrahim's confession, and many people point to the fact that the confession didn't match up with the crime scene. For instance,

Abraham said that the victim's hands were tied, but none of them were bound when investigators arrived on scene. But maybe we would have to have. have those answers if he wasn't killed in the middle of his confession. Now his father, who lived overseas, actually started working with an organization whose goal was to protect Muslim Americans against the FBI. And they believed that the FBI committed a crime by killing him in the middle of an interview. What we want to be able to do right now is seek justice for Abraham Todashev and also shed light on some of the malpractices and the brutality of the Federal Bureau of investigation. They would eventually sue the Massachusetts state police and the FBI for Ibrahim's death,

and his father would release Ibrahim's autopsy photos to show the world all the damage to his son's body. The FBI was saying they killed him in self-defense, but his father says the autopsy photos show otherwise, that he had been shot seven times, only one time in the head. And in his father's opinion, there was no need to shoot him when all four of the officers in the room were heavily armed. In his opinion, even if he did come after them, Why wouldn't they just shoot Abraham in the leg or something? Especially if he's in the middle of a confession to a triple homicide. The case, however, never went to trial.

In about 10 months after Ibrahim's death, the FBI finally released a report on what happened. As it turns out, they had been questioning Abraham for weeks regarding he and Tamerlund's relationship. But up until that point, they had never mentioned the triple homicide. Then randomly, they asked him if he knew Brandon Mess, and he started to get nervous. Then they brought up the fact that through his cell phone records, they noticed he didn't use his cell phone at all in the hours after the murders. Then, immediately after, he changed his phone number. Abraham was obviously caught, and by 10.25 that night, he started confessing to the murders.

While Ibrahim was writing it out on a piece of notebook paper, the lead investigator stepped outside to make a phone call, and some of the troopers that were in the room with him began texting each other. One of the messages read, quote, Be on Guard. He's in a vulnerable position to do something bad. Another message read, Be on Guard. I see him looking around at times.

Then, according to the FBI agents, Abraham picked up a coffee table and threw it at them. Then he grabbed a broomstick and charged the troopers. They said that they shot at him, but even after being shot, he jumped back up and tried to charge at them again. So the FBI agent took him down. So this report about Abraham's death did clear up some confusing questions. But it still didn't mention much about the triple homicide.

And apparently there were audio recordings of Abraham's confession, but there was none from when he was murdered, which is weird because the confession came right before he was killed, and none of the recordings have ever been released to the public. So that's where this story kind of ends. Despite Abraham confessing that he and Tamerlin were in fact responsible for the murders, the case is still unsolved. His wife, Rennie, would later admit that Abraham was definitely in Boston on the day of the murders, so it's safe to assume that he was telling the truth

in his unfinished confession. Even further, remember Jahar's friend who took his laptop from his dorm? While he was charged with obstruction, and wanting to make a deal, he told investigators that Tamerlin, quote, committed jihad in Walton, Massachusetts. So that's pretty convincing to me. And the reason this story is so important to tell

is because Tamerlund's reign of terror started years before the Boston Marathon bombing. The FBI won't classify the murders as a terrorist attack, but he nearly decapitated three men on the anniversary of 9-11 and then used their money to become reckless. radicalized. So to me, that plays into everything. And what's really unfortunate is that if the investigators would have properly investigated the triple homicide and followed up on all of the

tips that pointed to Tamerlin, they could have prevented the Boston Marathon bombing, but they didn't. And you can't turn back time. And Jihar Sarnaev's defense team really wanted to use this triple homicide in their favor. To them, the fact that Tamerlin was already murdering people before the bombing just showed that he was radicalized years earlier and that he heavily influenced Jihar. But the FBI didn't want the Walton murders brought up at trial because they thought it was a state case and not a federal case. So ultimately, the judge decided that the triple homicide could not be discussed during Jihar's trial, which would start on January 5th, 2015. Ultimately, there were 30 charges against him, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass

destruction, conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, carjacking, and possession and use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Some of the charges were punishable by death, but he was pleading not guilty. Joe Carr's Sarnaev, now 21, heads to court this morning, making his first public appearance in nearly a year and a half. Today's security will be tight as the bombing suspect makes his way to court, and many of those victims will see him face to face for the very first time. Jihar's defense wanted to make it seem like he was this impressionable young man heavily influenced by his radical brother. But the prosecution showed a video of him and his jail cell around the time of his arraignment, and in it you can see Jihar walk up to a security camera and stick up his middle finger.

A big fuck you to anyone watching. The prosecution claimed that the video, taken a few months after the bombing, showed that Jihar felt no remorse for his actions. But the arrogance he portrayed during his arraignment was not in the courtroom that day. Jihar had been held in solitary until his trial. and it was obvious that it had taken a toll on his once youthful appearance. The trial began with U.S. Attorney William Weinrib announcing to the jury the atrocities that had occurred between April 15th and April 19th, the bombings of the marathon, the victims, and the

suffering that they had endured, and the murder of MIT officer Sean Collier. Jihar's attorney, Judy Clark, also stood up and made her opening statements. She started. It was him. We meet in the most tragic of circumstances, tragedy in the lives of the victims of the bombings, lives that were lost and torn and shattered. the loss of a precious eight-year-old boy, whose smile captured all of our hearts. A young woman who, with an infectious laugh, who was always there for her friends and family, a young graduate student whose passion for music was so clear, and she embraced Boston as her home away from home, and a very fine young police officer whose lifelong dream was to protect and serve.

The circumstances that bring us here today are still difficult to grasp. They're incomprehensible. They're inexcusable. Clark continued to describe what had happened during the months leading up to the murder and how Jihar's brother, Tamerlin, had become obsessed with radical Islamic beliefs, and how in 2012, after visiting Russia and meeting with violent jihadists, he had brought the beliefs back to the states and began teaching his younger brother. Ultimately, her argument was that it had started with Tamerlin, and Jihar had followed. When Clark had delivered her speech, it was time for the victims to take turns speaking

directly to the man who had caused them harm. The witness statements were emotional. Many describing how they lost limbs, watched their loved ones lose limbs, and some had even witnessed death. Many people had to endure multiple surgeries and physical therapy. Some lost their homes because they could no longer walk up staircases. All through the emotional statements, Jihar showed no emotion, nor did he wince when the horrible videos were played,

showing exactly what had happened on that terrible day. Rebecca Gregory took the stand with her prosthetic leg and demanded Jihar to look at her, but he didn't. Jhar's aunt took the stand, saying he had always been a good boy. His cousin said the same thing. The defense attempted to hear. humanized Jihar by showing the jury a series of family photos from when he was growing up. They also wanted to point out that Jihar's mother, Zubidat, was unstable, leaving Jihar to be

raised by his older brother, Tamerlin, but their tactics would not persuade the jury. And on April 8, 2015, Jihar Sarnayev would be found guilty and sentenced to death. And although he remained silent throughout his entire trial, he wanted to address the court. His speech was over four minutes, so I'm just going to read part of it, but he said, the bombing which I am guilty of, if there is any lingering doubt, let there be no more. I did it along with my brother. I asked Allah to have mercy on me, my brother, and my family. Now I am sorry for the lives I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done, irreparable damage.

Allah said in the Quran that no soul is burdened with more than it can bear, and you told us just how unbearable it was, how horrendous it was, this thing I put you through. I also wished that far more people had a chance to get up there and speak. But I took them from you. I pray for Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased, those affected in the bombing and their families. I pray for your relief, for your healing, for your well-being, for your strength. Following this, the judge closes with, quote,

you redefined what it is to be an innocent person. It was monstrous self-deception. You had to forget your own humanity. Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done. No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you. No one will mention that your friends found you funny and fun to be with. No one will say you were a talented athlete or that you displayed compassion by being a best buddy or that you showed more respect to your women friends

than your male peers did. What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people and that you did it willfully and intentionally. You did it on purpose. Surely, someone who believes that God smiles on and rewards the deliberate killing and maiming of innocence believes in a cruel God that is not and cannot be the God of Islam. Anyone who has been led to believe otherwise has been maliciously and willfully deceived.

End quote. And here were some of the victim in terms. impact statements. MIT officer Sean Collier's sister said, quote, he is a leech abusing the privileges of American freedom, and he spit in the face of the American dream. End quote. A survivor of the Boston Marathon named Elizabeth Bergolt said,

quote, a coward in the strongest sense of the word. The defendant's God will condemn him into eternity of suffering. equal to, if not much more than what he caused to others." Crystal Campbell's mother, Patricia, said, quote, You're pretty bright. You could have helped your brother get help. What you did to my daughter was despicable. I don't know what to say to you.

I think the jury did the right thing. Bill Richard, Martin Richard's father, said, quote, He chose to do nothing, he chose to hate, he chose destruction, he chose death. We choose love, we choose kindness, we choose peace, and on the day he meets his maker, may he understand what he's done, and may justice and peace be found. End quote. And finally, here is survivor Len Julian after the sentence. I just wanted to vent a little bit about the first time we heard his voice today.

Nobody really realized that we didn't know what he sounded like after two years. And after we heard it, we wish we hadn't because the things he had to say were sort of shocking. He talked at first about Allah and this being the month of forgiveness, implying that we should all forgive him. And the last thing we wanted to hear was about Allah and why he did this in the first place and changed all our lives forever. And then he went on to give a sort of Oscar-type speech thanking the judge and thanking the jury and thanking his legal team and those who couldn't be here and his family for testifying and making, and I quote,

making my life easy for the past two years. Well, our lives have been anything but easy. And our lives will never be the same again. I live a block from the finish line and my neighborhood has changed forever. Now in 2020, Jihar's death sentence was actually overturned, stating that there were mistakes during his pre-trial publicity, as well as evidence that was not presented that might have been helpful to his defense. However, in 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. The ruling was 6 to 3. Justice Clarence Thomas said, Jihar Sarnayev committed heinous crimes. The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury.

He received one. End quote. Today, Jihar and his defense attorneys are still trying to appeal his death sentence. And surprisingly, many people, including some of the victims, like the Richard family, do not support Jahar's death sentence. And I'm not crazy about the death penalty either, but I think if anyone deserves to be put to death, it's terrorist. And that includes all terrorists,

even domestic ones like mass shooters. Those are the people who absolutely deserve to be put to death, if anyone. Now, Tamerlund's body was held in a Massachusetts funeral home for almost a month before someone agreed to take it. Apparently, the state of Massachusetts, as well as other nearby states, didn't want to bury the body in any of their cemeteries. He was ultimately taken to the state of Virginia and buried in an unmarked grave. As for Jahar, he is currently being held at the ADX Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado,

where he will remain until his death. Growing up, my mom was always the best at handling sticky, stressful situations. I mean, we have so many crazy family memories, so many things that stick out to me, so many trips that we took and just funny moments. I mean, I remember specifically one just crazy time when we had jet skis and we took them out. We had rented them for the day and we took them out on this lake. And somehow something got on the engine of the jet ski. Mine stalled.

My dad stalled. And my mom and sister had to come. rescue us because we've floated to shore on the other side of the lake. We've got some hilarious pictures from that day. But it's just one of those memories that I don't want to let die. And aura frames can help keep those moments alive. So basically an aura frame is like a virtual frame that can display photos and videos from anywhere. You can upload to the frame. You can share new photos. You can constantly change the library. And it's really a perfect gift for a family member because you can personalize it at any time. And the aura frame is the perfect Mother's Day gift to capture the

chaos that you might have put your own mom through and the memories that came with it. With free unlimited storage, you can add as many photos and videos to your aura frame as you want. And something that I love is that you can actually preload the aura frame with photos before it ships. And you can keep adding to it from anywhere at any time. Each aura frame also comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag, so it's great if you're giving it as a gift. And actually, ORAFraM's run off a top-rated app. In fact, the app reached number one on the app store on Christmas Day, 2025. So make Mother's Day special with ORAFraM's.

Named number one by Wirecutter, you can save on the gifts mom's love by visitingoraFrames.com. For a limited time, listeners can get $25 off their best-selling Carver Matt Frame with code M-I-A. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code. MIA. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply. Hey everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Murder in America. This is such a crazy, crazy story. And I don't know, I just feel like I didn't know that much about this crime until we started researching for the podcast. And wow, we had to make it two parts. We had to share all this with you. But I want to shout out all of our new patrons this week,

Molly Miracle, G.G. Sarah Blade, Kennedy, Errenson, Brooke Bordner, Molly Ansel, Brow Ryan Flat, Emma Hollenbaugh, Maya Franklin, Holy City Runner, Christopher Catsl, Ashley, Skeeter 5958, Melissa Michelle, Verdianna Penelosa, Tequila, Shailaha, Sharma, Gabriela, Jada Cajara, Cajna, Jolla, Lily, Sayde Morris, Morela, Galvin, Joey Baker, 23, Ruby Contreras, Jasmine, Collins Laura Johanna Arnold Maddie Weeks UC Miazza 2001 Kira Yeager Caitlin Ney Taylor Ware Hannah Silvas McKenna Janessa Nancy Hernandez Maria Jacob Poloni Peter Hurlin Karen Pell's Jennifer DeLuca Nick Demico Tim Sean Kayla Galusha Jamea Patterson Samantha Claire Keeley Ford Kate Yismi Moore de Antonio Jesse Clark Kelly Plemins and Lori Ordway

Oh my God people that is so many new patrons thank you all so much and I'm sorry if I slaughtered any of your names but if you're wondering what that list is, you can go sign up to become a patron at our Patreon. Just go to patreon.com and search Murder in America. We post the ad-free version of every single episode on our Patreon as soon as the episode drops on all streaming platforms. So if you don't like the ads, go sign up to become a patron today. And we'll read your name at the end of an episode.

If you want to follow us, follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. We just hit 30,000 followers. We post crime scene photos from the cases we cover on there. And yeah, there's a mouthful today, everybody. But thank you for listening. And we will see you next week. We love you.