Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
Triple murder case that took place in 2011 and remains unsolved to date in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings that occurred about two years later in 2013.
Waltham, September 11, 2011: Three men, throats slit, cash and drugs left on the bodies. Two years later, two dead suspects: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and a friend who the FBI says was about to confess. One haunting question: Could solving this case have prevented the Boston Marathon bombings?
On 11 September 2011 in Waltham, Massachusetts, three powerfully built strong men were murdered in one apartment. One was a known martial arts fighter, one a bodybuilder, and the other a personal trainer. All three men had their throats slit with such force they were almost decapitated and all were found face-down in different rooms.
There was no evidence of forced entry into the apartment and no noisy disturbance according to the neighbouring apartments whose residents were home and had heard nothing. With thousands of dollars cash at the crime scene and large quantities of marijuana, much of which purposely left over the dead bodies, robbery does not appear to have been a motive.
Police were convinced early on that these murders were not random. They believed that 25-year-old Brendan Mess, 31-year-old Erik Weissman, and 37-year-old Raphael Teken knew their killers and there were at least two killers inside Brendan’s apartment the night the men were killed.
With the dead men’s alleged connections to the local drug trade, it was theorized their murders were a drug deal gone wrong, however, two years later, after the Boston Marathon bombing, some surprising details emerged about this triple murder with the FBI eventually naming two men as official suspects.
On 15 April 2013 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two homemade bombs were detonated, killing three people and seriously injuring over 200 others. A total of 16 victims lost limbs in the attack, devastating life-changing injuries. The suspects behind the bombings were two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In a shoot-out with police on 18 April, Tamerlan was shot, dying immediately after his own brother ran him over and dragged his body several feet as he scrambled to escape police. The following day, Dzhokhar was found hiding out inside a drydocked boat in a Watertown man’s backyard, being shot and wounded during his arrest.
A month later, on 22 May 2013, a man called Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was being interviewed at his apartment in Orlando, Florida by the FBI and Massachusetts State Police. He told police Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Brendan Mess had known each other well, working out together at the gym.
In this interview, police reported Todashev had implicated Tamerlan in the Waltham triple murders and confessed to his own involvement. Without warning, while he was writing a formal statement, Todashev attacked the interviewing FBI agent with a knife, leading to him being shot and killed by another officer in attendance. After a full investigation,the officer who shot him was cleared of any misconduct with a ruling he took those actions in self-defense.With Todashev dead the main lead linking Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the triple murder case was gone with many questions left open. Was he telling the truth? Or was it a false confession coerced by police keen to get some names associated with a brutal unsolved triple murder?
A triple homicide was committed in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the evening of September 11, 2011.Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken were murdered in Mess’s apartment. All had their throats slit with such great force that they were nearly decapitated. Thousands of dollars’ worth of marijuana and money were left covering their mutilated bodies; in all, $5,000 was left in the apartment. The local district attorney said that it appeared that the killer and the victims knew each other, and that the murders were not random.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased suspect in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, had previously described murder victim Brendan Mess as his best friend, though before Mess was murdered there had been animosity between Tsarnaev and Mess over Mess’s “lifestyle”. After the bombings and subsequent revelations of Tsarnaev’s personal life, the Waltham murders case was reexamined in April 2013 with Tsarnaev as a new suspect. Authorities said Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have been responsible for the triple homicide, that forensic evidence connected them to the scene of the killings, and that their cell phone records placed them in the area. While police in the first investigation said that victims were killed on September 12, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and The Wall Street Journal reported that at least one relative of the victims believes that the killings took place on September 11
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Ibragim Todashev
In May 2013, Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old Chechen native and former mixed martial arts fighter who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and killed in Orlando, Florida, by law enforcement officers who had been interviewing him about the Waltham murders as well as the Boston Marathon bombings. The FBI has alleged that just before he was killed, Todashev made statements implicating both himself and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the Waltham murders-saying that the initial crime was a drug robbery, and the murders were committed to prevent being identified by the victims
Three men, Brendan Mess (age 25), Erik Weissman and Raphael Teken , were discovered murdered in the early afternoon on September 12, 2011. They were found in Mess’s apartment at 12 Harding Avenue in Waltham, Massachusetts
All three victims were Jewish according to a number of sources.
Other sources have not reported a religion for Mess.
Weissman was outspoken about his Jewish faith, and an active member of his synagogue.
Teken had majored in history at predominantly Jewish Brandeis University; he was buried in Israel
Mess had been described by Tamerlan Tsarnaev as his best friend. Mess, Weissman, and both Tsarnaev brothers had attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School at various times.Mess received a bachelor’s degree in professional writing from Champlain College in 2008.
The three men, who were described as being physically strong, were dragged to or killed in three different rooms. Mess was a well-known mixed martial arts fighter, and is listed as a martial arts instructor on his death certificate. Teken is listed as a personal trainer on his death certificate. Weissman was a bodybuilder
In 2008, police had pulled Weissman over for failing to yield, and smelled marijuana smoke in his vehicle. He was charged with marijuana possession and intent to distribute. Teken lived in Waltham, where certain neighbors said they believed he was a drug dealer, saying he rarely left the house and had a steady stream of visitors. In 2010, Mess and another man were arrested on charges that they assaulted several people at a store.
The Waltham home that was the scene of a 2011 triple homicide | David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Autopsies revealed that their throats had been slit from ear to ear with such force that they were nearly decapitated.The bodies had been left covered with thousands of dollars’ worth of marijuana (seven pounds of marijuana; in what investigators described as a symbolic gesture) and thousands of dollars of cash, in three different rooms.Police found $5,000 in cash at the scene, which suggested that robbery was not the motive.
Police said that the murders were not random.Two unidentified men had been seen at the apartment before the murders.Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said that it appeared that two unknown perpetrators and the victims knew each other, based on evidence that the police had obtained. It was believed that multiple people other than the victims were at the scene, and that the victims let the killers into their apartment; there was no evidence of forced entry. Neighbors whose windows were open did not hear anything unusual.
The Boston Globe first made the connection of the Tsarnaev brothers to the murders on April 22, 2013, after the Boston Marathon bombing.The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office stated that it was investigating the possible connection of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the murders. ABC reported that authorities believe Tsarnaev may have been responsible for the triple homicide. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined the investigation in April.
Investigators on the Boston Marathon bombing case said Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya for six months following the date of the Waltham murders.They sought to determine whether the killings may have been timed to take place on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
After the Marathon bombing, a Planet Aid driver found discarded fireworks in the Planet Aid donation bin in the parking lot of a restaurant, Gerry’s Italian Kitchen, that has been connected in other ways to the Waltham murders case and to the Tsarnaev brothers.
Police investigators told ABC News that “the gunpowder had been emptied from the fireworks and the shells discarded in a shopping bag inside the bin.”
Authorities believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev may be responsible for the triple homicide
Tamerlan Tsarnaev had formerly described murder victim Brendan Mess, who lived a few blocks from him in Cambridge and was a year younger than Tsarnaev, as his best friend. Tsarnaev had been a regular visitor at Mess’s apartment where the murders took place, and authorities believe that they were roommates for a time. Mess also brought Tsarnaev with him to social events and fight events.Investigators believe Tsarnaev was one of the last people to see Mess alive.
Both men were boxers and spent hours training and sparring together, starting in 2009. In 2011, Tsarnaev had introduced Mess to John Allan, owner of Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts in Allston, describing him as his “best friend”. Tsarnaev stopped going to the martial arts center after Mess was murdered, and did not return until March 2013, when he unexpectedly visited and acted rudely.
The website BuzzFeed interviewed a man named Ray, who was a friend of Mess and an acquaintance of Tsarnaev. Ray said: “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. That’s why it’s so weird when he said, ‘I don’t have any American friends.'” Ray continued: “He was somebody who was in contact with Brendan on a daily basis. Anybody like that you would think they would have been around.”
Ray did not have any further contact with Tsarnaev after the murders.
One of Mess’s relatives confirmed that Tsarnaev was not at Mess’s funeral or memorial service. The relative also noted Tsarnaev and Mess had disagreed over Mess’s lifestyle choices. On May 10, 2013, Massachusetts investigators were reported to have forensic evidence placing the Tsarnaev brothers at the crime scene. Further definitive DNA testing had to be completed before an indictment against the surviving brother could be considered, according to the officials. Officials said cell phone records for that date appeared to put the Tsarnaev brothers in the area of the murders.
Ibragim Todashev
On May 22, 2013, law enforcement officers, including an FBI special agent from the Boston field office, and two Massachusetts State Police troopers, interviewed a Chechen immigrant named Ibragim Todashev for approximately eight hours at his apartment in Orlando, Florida, regarding the Waltham triple murder and his connections to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other extremists.They said that he implicated both himself and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the murders during the questioning and was beginning to write a formal statement when he asked to take a break and then suddenly attacked the FBI agent.Todashev was shot multiple times and killed by the officers.
Todashev was unarmed when he was killed, although initial reports stated that he had a knife.The agent sustained minor injuries requiring stitches. The FBI established a post-shooting incident-review team to investigate the shooting.
Based on cell phone usage, police believe the killings took place on the evening of September 11. A call was placed at 8:54 p.m. from Weissman’s cell phone to Gerry’s Italian Kitchen, a Watertown restaurant, for delivery of three dinner entrees. When a delivery woman arrived at 9:14 p.m., there was no answer at the door, and no one answered when the restaurant called Weissman’s cell phone
Feds join probe of gruesome 2011 triple murder.
The stalled investigation into a gruesome 2011 triple murder in the leafy suburb of Waltham, Mass., has taken a dramatic turn in the days since two explosions ripped through the crowd during the final stretch of the Boston Marathon.
In the two weeks since those blasts erupted 12 seconds apart, FBI agents have begun working with prosecutors to interview family members and friends of the three victims in the unsolved Waltham slayings, law enforcement authorities tell ABC News. Family members of two victims told ABC News they had been contacted by FBI agents about the case in recent days. The agents’ interest has been sparked by an overlooked connection between accused bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and one of the victims in the case, Brendan Mess.
Mess and his two friends; Raphael Teken, 37, and Erik Weissman, 31, had their throats slit late on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Last week, prosecutors confirmed to ABC News that they were trying to determine whether Tsarnaev had any link to the case.
Both Tsarnaev, 26, a Golden Gloves champion, and Mess, 25, a Jiu-Jitsu fighter, had harbored dreams of a career in mixed-martial arts, a sport which combines skills from both. The two started training together in 2009, and at one point lived as roommates, relatives told investigators. In the months before the slayings, friends of Mess said he had been bringing the quiet immigrant along with him to social events.
Scott Wood, 40, an army ranger and instructor at Vermont Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, befriended and trained Mess when he was briefly a student at the University of Vermont. He says the last time he saw Mess was at a fight event in June 2011
Mess brought Tsarnaev as his guest.”I met that guy at a fight event. Brendan introduced me to him as Tam,” Wood told ABC News. “He seemed like a real arrogant guy, the tough guy at the gym, not a mass murderer.”
Another friend of Mess’s told ABC News he, too, remembered Tsarnaev joining the group to watch a mixed-martial arts fight. The friend, who spoke on the condition he not be identified, said Mess and his friends kept calling Tsarnaev “champ,” because of his Golden Gloves title. Tsarnaev was quiet, he said, sitting at the end of the row and declining when people offered him beers.
Three men were found slain in September 2011 in a Waltham, Mass., apartment frequented by Tamerlan Tsarnaev.Credit…Joanne Rathe/Boston Globe
another strange link emerged between the accused Boston bomber and the triple murder case. Investigators were called to the parking lot of Gerry’s Italian Kitchen on Belmont Street in Watertown. A Planet Aid driver had stumbled upon discarded fireworks in a donation bin there. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that the gunpowder had been emptied from the fireworks and the shells discarded in a shopping bag inside the bin. Investigators put the bins on a flatbed truck and drove them away as possible evidence in the bombing case.
Gerry’s Italian Kitchen also surfaced in the triple murder case.
The last time anyone is known to have heard from the three men was at 8:54 p.m. on Sept. 11, when someone called Gerry’s on Weissman’s cell phone and ordered meatballs, a chicken cutlet and a side order of sausage. When a delivery woman arrived twenty minutes later there was no answer and no one picked up when they tried to call Weissman’s cell phone.
The following day the three men were found with their throats slashed, their bodies mutilated and covered with marijuana. Police were perplexed because the drugs and $5,000 were not taken from the blood-soaked scene and there was no sign of forced entry. At the time the bodies were discovered, local prosecutors said “it does look like the assailants and the decedents did know each other. We have no evidence of a break in the apartment.”
A source close to the investigation told ABC News they are trying to determine whether Tsarnaev once worked as a pizza delivery driver at Gerry’s Italian Kitchen. The manager and employees of the eatery said in repeated interviews that he had never worked there.
In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, Mess’ friends and relatives say they can’t let go of suspicions about Tsarnaev.
“It’s no coincidence that the last time I saw my friend Brendan alive he was walking out of that fight with that kid Tam,” Wood said.
Officials in neighboring Somerville told ABC News they are glad prosecutors have started to look more closely at a possible connection.
“After seeing what occurred on Marathon Monday…nothing surprises me anymore,” Somerville Mayor Joseph Curatone told ABC News. “I hope and I know that law enforcement professionals will dig and we will find out the whole story.”
Somerville Police Chief Tom Pasquarello said that the savagery Tsarnaev has been accused of displaying – including the alleged assassination of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier – would indicate that investigators should look more closely at the relationship between the murder victims and the suspected bomber.
“Anyone who would go up to a police officer and has no problem with the cold blooded killing of a police officer would have no problem with that type of murder whether it was over a drug deal or another type of crime,” Pasquarello told ABC News.
The FBI shooting was deemed justified by Ashton and a separate investigation conducted by the FBI and confirmed through the Department of Justice.
Nearly six months later, there have been no new details released about the murder case and numerous questions remain.
Todashev reportedly said the Harding Avenue murders were initially supposed to be a drug robbery. But why was marijuana and money left on the bodies?
April 12 , 1018.
On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., an attack of a different nature took place in Waltham. That evening in 2011, on a dead-end street near the Watertown border, three men — Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken — were murdered in Mess’s second floor apartment. All three, according to police, suffered horrible deaths. They were nearly decapitated, and marijuana was strewn everywhere. Five-thousand dollars were left behind.
The men knew each other from Cambridge, either as former classmates at Cambridge Rindge and Latin or from the world of mixed martial arts. That led law enforcement officials to connect the dots to the marathon bombing suspect two years after the murders. Suddenly, in the aftermath of the explosions, the Waltham case was in the national spotlight.
Erik Weissman’s sister, Ariel, told WGBH’s Magery Eagan and Jim Braude that the alleged connection came as a shock.
“It was just like there wasn’t even time to process the April 15 bombing before it was immediately implicated that there may have been a connection to my brother and these other two guys’ murder,” she said.
On Harding street where the murders took place, crocuses were budding, and hints of grass were transforming lawns from brown to green. It’s a proto-typical suburban scene. One resident, who didn’t want to give his name, likes the peace and quiet.
One resident, who didn’t want to give his name, likes the peace and quiet. He recalls in 2011 when this Waltham street was awash in blue lights. “It wasn’t nice with cops, cops in and out and stuff like that. It got back to normal way quicker than I thought it would because I don’t think they found who it was.”
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan this week told WGBH News, “That continues to be an open and active investigation. As you certainly know many times cases take time. We work on cases for a long time before reaching a successful conclusion.”
And some of those avenues have led investigators — including Massachusetts State Police and the FBI — to several locations, including Orlando, Florida.
That is a case that is open and active. There are lots of avenues that we are pursuing. — Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan
That is where an FBI agent, in the company of two Massachusetts troopers, fatally shot Ibragim Todashev seven times in his apartment in May 2013, during an interrogation. Todashev’s family accused the FBI agent, a former Oakland police officer with a spotty record, of murder. The agent said that Todashev, a mixed martial artist, lunged at him for reasons unclear, moments after Todashev allegedly confessed to taking part in the triple homicides. He reportedly implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the crime.
But that version of events has has come under suspicion from the ACLU and the families of the three dead men. Law enforcement officials, however, continue to this day to work on the theory that at least Todashev and Tsarnaev were involved in the murders. WGBH News learned that a third person may be connected to the case. I asked Ryan for confirmation but she declined to comment.As WGBH News has reported previously, state police investigators visited Hilba Eltilib, a girlfriend and housemate of Brendan Mess. Her name was on the lease of the Waltham apartment, and she discovered the bodies of the men the next morning. Investigators, we are told, believe she may know more than she has let on.
In the space of seven years with no resolution, the Waltham triple murder case has taken on a life of its own and is the subject of alternative theories of what happened, ranging from an anti-Semitic hit job, since two of the victims were Jewish and the incident occurred on September 11th, to the belief that at least two of the men were government informants who ran afoul of organized crime. At a vigil for the three men not long ago
Mess’ friend Kelly Griffin, who expressed concern about the rumors.
“It leaves people to try to connect the dots on their own rather than to get information that would provide some sort of real understanding,” said Griffin. “It’s like gossip that comes to us rather than real information. And it’s unfortunate that there hasn’t been a real investigation into this. I mean it makes you wonder what is really behind it and why.”
Ryan, the district attorney, is under pressure to solve this mystery and has heard from her constituents in Middlesex County.
“People should be concerned and ask questions,” she said. “In some cases, investigations take a long time as we put those cases together with integrity to build a solid prosecution if that’s where the case is going.”
But on Harding Street in Waltham, for our unnamed resident, whodunnit, as they say, doesn’t really matter.
But on Harding Street in Waltham, for our unnamed resident, whodunnit, as they say, doesn’t really matter.
“It didn’t impact me at all, to be honest with you,” he said. “Seems like a professionally done job, because how do you get that type of homicide happening and nobody hearing nothing? It was not like it just happened to be some guys just pulled into a random street and said ‘Oh, yeah, let’s do a triple homicide.’ That didn’t happen.”
No, it didn’t. It was not random. On that, at least, the victims’ families and Waltham and state police, the FBI and the Middlesex DA all agree.