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Did Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev steal the gun used to kill police officer Sean Collier from victims of 2011 triple homicide?
PUBLISHED: 01:03 EST, 26 May 2013 UPDATED: 01:34 EST, 26 May 2013
The girlfriend of one of the three men brutally killed in a Waltham, Massachusetts apartment in 2011 has revealed that she told police soon after the murders that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been a frequent visitor to the apartment.
The woman, who hasn't been named, was the girlfriend of Brendan Mess, 25. On Sept. 11, 2011 she found his dead body along with those of Erik Weissman, 31, and Raphael Teken, 37.
Earlier this week Chechan immigrant Ibragim Todashev, 27, was killed by FBI agents but not before he implicated himself and Tsarnaev in the 2011 triple slaying.
Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, was implicated earlier this week in the 2011 murder of Brendan Mess, right
A homicide investigation into the 2011 slayings had appeared to have stalled until friends and relatives of Mess reported a possible link to Tsarnaev after his picture was released as a suspect in last month bombings.
The woman, an African immigrant, also revealed that prior to his death, Mess had kept a handgun in his apartment but that police had told her after the bodies were discovered that it was missing.
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It is believed that Mess's missing gun was the same weapon Tsarnaev used when he shot MIT police Officer Sean Collier dead on the night of April 18 and wounded other officers shortly afterwards in the shoot-out in Watertown, Boston.
Tsarnaev and Mess had been close friends, so when the woman identified the bombing suspect to police it had been as someone who was a frequent visitor to the apartment, rather than as a possible suspect in the triple homicide.
Murdered: Raphael Teken (left with a friend) and Erik Weissman (right) were also killed in the 2011 triple slaying
Police did not ask her about Tsarnaev after she gave them his name, she said.
'But if they questioned everyone whose fingerprints were in the apartment, I'm sure Tam's fingerprints had to be there,'' she told the Boston Globe .
In the weeks before the killings, the woman said Mess had Tsarnaev had told Mess that the FBI had placed him on a terrorist watch list.
'Brendan said, "The FBI is watching him; they think he's a terrorist,"' the woman said. 'We laughed about it. We never took it seriously.''
It was Mess' girlfriend who had found the victim's bodies, their throats had been slit, they have been covered with marijuana and there was also $5,000 cash in the home.
'I just can't believe Tam would back stab Brendan like that,' she said. 'It's so painful to me, because Brendan was so open and loving with Tam.'
Confession: Todashev had allegedly admitted to being involved in the 2011 slaying and that he was preparing to sign a written statement based on his confession when he turned violent and was subsequently shot dead earlier this week
Investigation: An FBI evidence response team enters an apartment after an agent shot and killed Ibragim Todashev who was questioned in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings
'They were pretty peaceful people, but I know Brendan had one gun,' his girlfriend said.
'I think it was for protection. I don't understand why he couldn't have used it' during the deadly assault.
Todashev was fatally shot by an FBI agent at his condo near Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida just after midnight on Wednesday.
He had allegedly turned violent as he was preparing to sign a written confession to his and Tsarnaevs involvement in the 2011 triple homicide, said authorities.
'The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,' the FBI said in a statement.
'During the confrontation, the individual was killed.'
Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, left, is being held at a prison medical center outside Boston, while MIT police officer Sean Collier was shot multiple times in his squad car
Harrowing: Images taken by a resident show the suspected Boston Marathon bombers hiding behind a car as they engage in a dramatic shootout with police in Watertown last month
Investigators said Todashev had implicated himself and Tsarnaev in the gruesome triple slaying in which three men were found on Sept. 11, 2011 with their throats cut and marijuana covering their bodies.
Law enforcement sources toldNBC that the two men carried out the 2011 killings when a drug deal that turned violent. The suspects didn't want the three victims to be able to identify them, so they slit their throats, according to the network.
Massachusetts investigators had reported earlier this month that they were uncovering 'mounting evidence' that Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, were involved in the slaying. One of the victims, Brendan Mess, was a close friend of Tamerlan's.
Authorities said they have no reason to believe that Todashev had any involvement in the marathon bombings.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has been charged in connection with the bombings and is being held at a prison medical center outside Boston.
Blasts: The April 15 explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured more than 240
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