At the time, police thought it was done by someone who knew the men because there wasn’t any evidence of a break in or robbery. A drug dealer or anyone involved in drugs would have taken the money and the drugs, not scatter it around as an act of disgust. Some of the disgust may have come from the three men being Jewish and Tamerlan was criticising others for smoking marijuana at this time. Mess was supposedly his best friend but didn’t go to his viewing or funeral. Everyone at the time thought it was strange. I suspect these murders were part of an initiation to prove himself to Plotnikov and or Kartashov. I have doubts that Dzhokhar was involved in the triple murder but who knows.
From my notes:
2011 – Third cousin, Magomed Kartashov, six years older than Tamerlan, founded and became the leader of an organization called the Union of the Just, based in Kizlyar, Dagestan, whose members campaign for Shari‘a and pan-Islamic unity in Dagestan, often speaking out against U.S. policies across the Muslim world. The group publicly renounces violence. But some of its members have close links to militants; others have served time in prison for weapons possession and abetting terrorism.
2011 - William Plotnikov gives Russian authorities Tamerlan’s name during an interrogation.
2011 – Russia claims Mama texts relatives in Russia Tamerlan willing to die for Islam
2011 – Maret, of west of Toronto, Canada reports Tamerlan is praying five times daily. Maret hasn’t seen brothers since about 2008.
2011 – Parents divorce and Papa moves back to Russia
March 2011 - Russia intercepts calls between Mama and Tamerlan and possibly Dzhokhar and sends warning to FBI. Mama also on phone with someone in the Caucasus region of Russia who was/is on FBI list.
April 2011 –Dzhokhar wins Greater Boston League Winter All-Star for wrestling.
April 2011 or June 2011 - FBI closes file on Tamerlan and Mama.
June 2011 - Dzhokhar graduates from Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school where he was co-captain of the wrestling team. He barely passed and according to other co-captain, Peter Tenzin, drank and smoked like 95% of the school Many claim he’s a good kid and City of Cambridge gives him a $2500 scholarship.
July 1, 2011 – FBI puts Tamerlan on TECS list to monitor his travels.
Sept 2011 - Russia sends second warning, this time to CIA. At some point, US officials meet with family at their home and Tamerlan is defiant to them.
Sept 2011 to Nov 2012 – Tamerlan and Katherine get welfare. She has dropped out of college and is working. He isn’t working or boxing.
Aug 2011 to Dec 2012 – Dzhokhar gets failing grades in college. He began as an engineering student and then switched to biology. Joins Muslim Student Association intramural soccer team.
Sept 11, 2011 – Tamerlan’s best friend, another Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School grad (same class as Tamerlan?) and boxer, Brendan Halley Mess, 25, and two other Jewish men, Erik Hacker Weissman, 31, a Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School grad, and Raphael Teken, 37, and close friend to Mess’ brother Dylan, were murdered in Waltham – throats slit, marijuana and money scattered over bodies. Suspicion is now on Tamerlan.
Oct 2011 - CIA puts Tamerlan and Mama on terrorist list.
Dec 2011 – Tamerlan attempted to go for a pilgrimage known as an Umrah to Mecca but that was the wrong time of year for such. Saudi Arabia denies Tamerlan access visa due to human intelligence developed independently from Russia in Yemen.
Jan 12, 2012 - Tamerlan goes to Russia. Papa claims he was with him the whole time but US officials claim papa wasn’t in Dagestan at that time. Before leaving Russia, he applies to replace his soon to expire passport from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan with a Russian one but returns to US before receiving it.
April 2012 – Dagestani Center for Combating Extremism registered Tamerlan’s repeated meetings with radical Mahmud Mansur Nidal, 18, who had been under surveillance as a recruiter for the Dagestani insurgency. He was killed in a police operation in Makhachkala on May 19, 2012.
June 13, 2012 – Mama arrested for shoplifting at Lord and Taylor.
July 14, 2012 – Plotnikov is one of several insurgents killed in a battle with Russian security forces. Russia speculates Tamerlan may have been involved with Plotnikov and were searching for him.
July 17, 2012 - Tamerlan lands in US from Russian trip and has grown a full beard. Neighbors say a few weeks later he was clean shaven.
Thank you for sharing your research. I’ve been attempting the same, but haven’t reached the point of looking back over these earlier events and specifics. May I ask, if you know...if Tamerlan was suspected in these murders, was it pursued and what was the outcome? Also, if Tamerlan was cleared and his file was closed in April/June, 2011, what incident caused his travels to be monitored via TCES by FBI and in Oct. 2011, what incident caused the CIA to put both he and his mother on the terror list (not something easy to do)?