"Police have said they believe there were two other men in Mess' apartment — the scene of the crime — sometime before the murder, but those two men have never been identified. Ray said following the murder, he was questioned by detectives who told him Tsarnaev may have been with Mess either the day of or the night before, although the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office said they could not confirm any relationship between Mess and Tsarnaev. The Waltham police department declined to comment on the murder or on the alleged relationship between Tsarnaev and Mess.After Tsarnaev was fingered as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, Ray and his friends became increasingly convinced he had something to do with the gruesome 2011 crime.
They originally suspected Mess' girlfriend, an immigrant from Somalia, they thought, whom Ray described as a "transient" who "latched onto Brendan." She had a friendly relationship with Tsarnaev, with whom she would have "conversations about religious things and lifestyles."
The attitude about Tsarnaev's involvement has changed in the last week. Now people suspect him of the worst.
"A few of my friends, without even speaking about it beforehand, have all been thinking this," he said.
"There was no forced entry," Ray said, so police believe whoever was responsible was let into the apartment.
No suspects have ever been named, but Waltham police said the case is still open.
A few months after Mess' murder, Tsarnaev went to Russia for six months. His father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told the Associated Press his son stayed with him in the city of Makhachkala, in the region of Dagestan.
"He slept until 3 p.m., and you know, I would ask him: 'Have you come here to sleep?'" his father said. "He used to go visiting, here and there. He would go to eat somewhere. Then he would come back and go to bed."
When Tsarnaev returned to the United States, Ray said a friend saw him out in public once and described him as "hollow." But Mess' younger brother continued to see Tsarnaev at the gym where they both trained. "Tam was with Brendan's little brother a month ago," he said.
Ray said none of his friends saw any "red flags" while they were friends with Tsarnaev, although he said some of them remember Tsarnaev making comments about the afterlife being glorified and disparaging remarks about Americans once or twice.
Thanks, had not seen that one either.