Friend of Waltham Murder Victims: Tsarnaev Dropped Away After Triple Murder

A friend of three men killed in a 2011 unsolved triple murder in Waltham told Patch that one of the murdered men was Tamerlan Tsarnaev's "best American friend; they trained together."

Brendan Mess and Raphael Teken of Waltham, and Erik Weissman of Cambridge, were found dead with their throats slit at a Harding Avenue apartment on Sept. 12, 2011. Their murder has remained unsolved. 

Prior to the triple murder, a friend of the three men ­– who spoke to Patch on the condition of anonymity — said Tsarnaev and Mess had been close friends, training together at Wai Kru mixed martial arts gym in Allston.

But “Tam,” as the friends called Tsarnaev, didn’t show up for the funeral of his friend Mess, and had little contact with others in the group after the murders occurred, the friend said.

“We just don’t see him doing this [the triple murder],” the friend said of Tsarnaev. But he had little contact with friends in the group after the murders, the friend said.

Since last week’s news that Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were suspects in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings, the friend of the murder victims in Waltham has spoken to police about Tsarnaev.

“They are interested now,” the friend said, noting Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name was brought up to police following the murders, but it is unknown if officials at the time even considered the possibility of Tsarnaev being involved in the killings. 

On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office reportedly confirmed that investigators are now looking more deeply into connections between Tsarnaev and the Waltham murder victims.

"We are looking at a possible connection with the suspect in the Marathon atrocity and this active and open homicide in Waltham,'' said Stephanie Guyotte, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's office reportedly told ABC News.