2011 Waltham triple murder

Coordinates: 42°22′36″N 71°13′03″W / 42.376736°N 71.217405°W / 42.376736; -71.217405

2011 Waltham triple murder
Location	12 Harding Avenue, Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date	September 11, 2011
Attack type	Near-decapitation
Weapons	Ice pick or knife
Deaths	Brendan Mess, age 25 Erik Weissman, age 31 Raphael Teken, age 37
Motive	Unknown

A triple homicide was committed in Waltham, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, on the evening of September 11, 2011.^[1][2] Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken were murdered in Mess's apartment. All had their throats slit from ear to ear, with such great force that they were nearly decapitated. Thousands of dollars' worth of marijuana and money were left covering their mutilated bodies, and $5,000 was left at the scene. 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.^[1] ABC reported that authorities believe Tsarnaev and his younger brother 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.^[3] 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 believe that the killings took place on September 11.^[1][4]

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.^[5]

Victims

Three men, Brendan Mess (age 25), Erik Weissman (31) and Raphael Teken (37), 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.^[6]

All three victims were Jewish according to a number of sources.^{[3][7][8][9][10]} Other sources have not reported a religion for Mess.^[3][9][11] 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.^[9]

Mess had been described by Tamerlan Tsarnaev as his best friend.^[9][12] Mess, Weissman, and both Tsarnaev brothers had attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School at various times.^[9] Mess received a bachelor's degree in professional writing from Champlain College in 2008.^[13]

The three men, who were described as being physically strong, were dragged to or killed in three different rooms.^[14] 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.^[1] Weissman was a bodybuilder.^[15]

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.^[13]

2011 investigation

Autopsies revealed that the men had been brutally murdered. Their heads had been pulled back, and their throats had been slit from ear-to-ear with either an ice pick or knife with such great force that they were nearly decapitated.^[16][17] Their mutilated 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.^[18][19] Police said $5,000 was left at the scene, which suggested that robbery was not the motive.^[20][21]

Police said that the murders were not random.^[9] Two unidentified men had been seen at the apartment before the murders.^[22] Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said that it appeared that two unknown perpetrators and the victims knew each other, based on evidence that the police had obtained.^[20] It was believed that there was more than one person at the scene other than the victims based on "many factors", and that the victims let the killers into their apartment, and there was no evidence of forced entry.^[23] Neighbors whose windows were open did not hear any signs of trouble.^[23]

A Waltham police investigator said the murders were:

the worst bloodbath I have ever seen in a long law enforcement career. There was no forced entry, it was clear that the victims had let the killer in. And their throats were slashed right out of an al Qaeda training video. The drugs and money on the bodies was very strange.^[6]

2013 investigation developments

New investigation details

The Boston Globe first made the connection of the Tsarnaev brothers to the murders.^[9]

On April 22, 2013, the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office stated that it was actively investigating the possible connection of Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the murders.^[24] ABC reported that authorities believe Tsarnaev may have been responsible for the triple homicide.^[3] The Federal Bureau of Investigation joined the investigation, and expects to conduct a lengthy investigation to examine whether the Tsarnaev brothers were involved in the murders.^[25]

Investigators on the Boston Marathon bombings case have said Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya for six months following the date of the Waltham murders.^[1] At the time of the killings, Tsarnaev, then 24, was beginning to be influenced by radical Islam and becoming increasingly strict in his interpretation of Islam.^[26] They are seeking to determine whether the killings may have been timed to take place on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.^[27]

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.^[23] 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."^[23]

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's connection to the victims

Tamerlan Tsarnaev had formerly described murder victim Brendan Mess, who lived a few blocks from him in Cambridge and was a year younger than Tamerlan, as his best friend.^[28] Tsarnaev had been a regular visitor at Mess's apartment where the murders took place, and authorities believe that at times Mess slept at Tsarnaev's apartment; at one point, they lived together as roommates.^[28] Mess also brought Tamerlan with him to social events and fight events.^[28] Investigators believe Tsarnaev was one of the last people to see Mess alive.^[29]

Both men were boxers, and they spent hours training and sparring together beginning in 2009.^[28] In 2011 Tamerlan had introduced Mess to John Allan, owner of Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts in Allston, describing him as his "best friend".^[1]

Allan said:

After Mess died it really shocked me how unemotional [Tamerlan] was. He just kind of laughed and said, 'Can you believe it?' It was like he didn’t care about this kid he grew up with.

Tsarnaev stopped going to the martial arts center after Mess was murdered, and did not return until March 2013 when he suddenly visited and acted rudely.^[24]

The website BuzzFeed interviewed a friend of Mess named Ray, who also knew Tsarnaev and who was in the same social circle in Cambridge.^[30] Ray now believes that Tsarnaev could have played a role in the murders. He 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.'^[9]

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."^[30] Ray did not have any further contact with Tsarnaev after the murders.^[31]

One of Mess's relatives also told investigators they thought it was odd that Tsarnaev had not attended his friend Mess's funeral. Nor was he at his memorial service.^[20] Two law enforcement sources said that the Mess relative also noted that there had been animosity between Tsarnaev and Mess, over Mess's "lifestyle".^[32]

On May 10, 2013 investigators in Massachusetts were reported to have developed what they called "mounting evidence" supported by "forensic hits" as some crime scene forensic evidence provided a match to the two Tsarnaev brothers, pointing to the possible involvement of both Tsarnaev brothers in the killings.^[23] Further definitive DNA testing must be completed before an indictment against the surviving brother can be considered, according to the officials.^[23] Their cell phone records also appeared to put the Tsarnaev brothers in the area of the murders on that date, according to the officials.^[23]

Ibragim Todashev interview and death

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.^[5][33] 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.^[5][33] Todashev was shot multiple times and killed by the officers.^[33][34][35]

Todashev was unarmed when he was killed, although initial reports stated that he had a knife.^[34][35][36] The agent sustained minor injuries requiring stitches. The FBI established a post-shooting incident-review team to investigate the shooting.^[5]

The date and time of the murders

Questioning the September 12 date initially reported by officials, a relative said: "The three of them were definitely killed on September 11.... They all stopped using their cellphones at about eight o'clock that night."^[1]

The last time anyone is known to have heard from the three victims was at 8:54 p.m. on September 11, 2011, when a call was placed from Weissman's cell phone to Gerry's Italian Kitchen, a Watertown restaurant, for delivery of three dinner entrees.^[28] 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.^[28]

Police now believe the killings took place on the evening of September 11, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, based on text messages.^[28]

Media coverage

For about a week after the murders, the crime received extensive media attention across the region, but without further updates from police, media reports dried up.^[37] One year later, in September 2012, regional media again reported on the unsolved murders. In April 2013, when a possible connection to a Boston Marathon bombings suspect was made, the murders received extensive worldwide media coverage.

See also

• Beheading in Islamism
• Crime in Massachusetts

References

Further reading

• "Dead Men Tell No Tales". This American Life. Episode 519. March 7, 2014. WBEZ. Retrieved March 8, 2014.  Investigative report on the murders and the death of Ibragim Todashev.
• Zalkind, Susan (March 2014). "The Murders Before the Marathon". Boston. Retrieved March 8, 2014.  A different version of the above report.

Boston Athletic Association Boston Marathon By year ...1970 ...2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 List of winners 2013 bombings Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Tamerlan Tsarnaev Ibragim Todashev Sunil Tripathi Boston Strong book Our Marathon: The Boston Bombing Digital Archive Related topics George V. Brown Other events Boston Athletic Association 10K People Edward F. Sheehan