Boston Bombing Might Provide Leads in 2011 Slaying of Two Jews

Authorities in a Boston suburb said they would investigate if any links turn up between a suspect in last week’s Boston Marathon bombing and an unsolved 2011 slaying.

On Sept. 12, 2011, the bodies of Brendan Mess, 25, of Waltham; Erik Weissman, 31, of Cambridge; and Raphael Teken, 37, of Cambridge, were found in Mess’s apartment. All three had been killed by an unknown assailant. Weissman and Teken were Jewish.

Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman MaryBeth Long told The Associated Press that her office will not reveal details of its investigation or say if there’s new information, but said investigators would follow up if the bombing probe provides any new clues into the slaying.

Brendan Mess was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old terrorist who was pronounced dead Friday after a shootout with police. Mess’s brother Dylan told the AP on Saturday that he and his brother both knew Tsarnaev, but declined to talk about him.

A Boston Globe profile of the Tsarnaev brothers first made the possible connection to the triple murder.

This article appeared in print on page D10 of the April 24th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.