Those who knew and worked with parents of Boston bombing suspects say family was increasingly split
The third floor of the wood-framed house in which the Tsarnaev family lived in a quiet, residential street in Cambridge used to be noisy and messy, the sound of furious arguments often heard through the open windows by neighbours. More than a week since Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are alleged to have planted two bombs at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon which killed three people and maimed scores more, it is empty and silent.
As investigators turn their attention to the motive behind the attack, friends and neighbours of the Tsarnaevs, ethnic Chechens who came to the US a decade ago, seek their own answers. It seems clear, from interviews given by family members and others, that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the older brother who is believed to have been the mastermind of the bombings and who was killed while attempting to escape capture, underwent a process of radicalisation in his thinking regarding Islam, three or four years ago.
Under a fog of claims and counter claims by members of the extended Tsarnaev family, two sides have emerged. One side appears to accept the brothers' involvement in the bombings. But the brothers' parents, Zubeidat and Anzor, refuse to believe that their sons had anything to do with the attack. In the middle are the Tsarnaevs' sisters, Ailina and Bella Tsarnaev, who grew up in the family home in Norfolk Street, Cambridge. The sisters, 22 and 24, issued a statement this week saying they were "devastated" by the "callous" act. "We don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more," they said.
From Dagestan, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva claims the bombings were fake and her sons were "set up." But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle, has blamed Zubeidat Tsarnaeva for introducing her son to hardline Islamic views. He also claimed that a mysterious Armenian in Cambridge had "brainwashed" his nephew, prompting a wave of speculation in the community about the identify of the mysterious figure, about whom no further details could be confirmed.
A friend of the family, who was unwilling to be named, said they would "urge caution" over Tsarni's claims, as he had fallen out with Zubeidat. "You are talking about a really complex family dynamic," the friend told the Guardian.
'Mama said: the kids should learn to pray'
That there is a family rift is clear. Tsarni and his brother Alvi, who live in Maryland, have given interviews acknowledging a split in the family. Alvi Tsarni told the Guardian in a telephone interview that he had not seen his nephews for years. "I have not seen my Tamerlan since he was radicalised," he said.
The family friend said the Tsarnaev family were Sufi Muslims, the dominant and moderate form of Islam in their homeland of the northern Caucasus. The friend said that "six or seven years back", Zubeidat was keen for Tamerlan to pray more. "The father was not religious. They observed Ramadan and when Eid came there would be a big meal. But a few years back, mama said: 'The kids should learn to pray.' I think for Tamerlan, Islam was a potential identity."
It was around 2009 to 2010 that Tamerlan and his mother began to change their attitude towards Islam. She began to wear the hijab, the friend said, around the same time that Tamerlan persuaded his wife, US-born Katherine Russell, to convert to Islam. "She fell under the influence of her son," the friend said. "You have to understand the family dynamics. This is not an Islamic conspiracy. This is a crazy guy who acted pretty normally at times."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was well known for "losing it", the friend said. The change in his wife's appearance distressed Anzor, Zubeidat said, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal from Makhachkala, Dagestan.
"He said, 'You are being crazy, covering yourselves,'" Zubeidat recalled her husband saying. She said that she told him: "This is what Islamic men should want. This is what I am supposed to do." In the same interview, Zubeidat said that after she had persuaded Tamerlan he should practice his religion, fearing his life lacked direction, her son "started reading about Islam and he started praying and then he got more and more into his religion".
The friend said that, when the couple first moved to the US, around a decade ago, they were "very modern" and she was "very fashionable". Although both parents had studied law, their lack of English meant they had to work hard to make money. Anzor worked as a car mechanic in the street and, for a year, at Webster Auto Body, around the corner from their home. Zubeidat was a carer for a while and then studied cosmetology, north of Cambridge. A friend she met there opened a spa and she worked there for a while, but the work dried up and she began doing facials at home.
It was around 2010 that Alyssa Kilzer, 23, a writer and yoga teacher who went to the Tsarnaev house to receive facials, first noticed Zubeidat wearing the hijab, she wrote in a blogpost. Kilzer noticed other changes too, she said.
Zubeidat became "increasingly religious", invoking Allah and lessons from the Qur'an, Kilzer said. During one facial session, Kilzer said, Zubeidat quoted a conspiracy theory about 9/11, saying the attacks had been created by the US government to instil hatred towards Muslims. "It's real," Zubeidat said, according to Kilzer. "My son knows all about it."
In 2011, Zubeidat, 45, and Anzor, 47, ended their 25-year marriage, according to reports. Anzor left the US, while his wife and four children remained. The family friend said that Zubeidat became increasingly worried about Tamerlan, because he had been expected to return earlier than he did from a six-month trip to Dagestan that he had ostensibly undertaken in order to visit relatives. The trip is now under scrutiny by investigators. Zubeidat was looking after Tamerlan's daughter and his wife and, she told the friend, she had learned her brother had cancer. "She told me her whole world was falling apart and she wanted to go back to her family," the friend said.
Zubeidat left Boston to go back to her family in 2012, shortly after Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Dagestan, the family friend said. While Anzor has said he will return to the US to seek "truth and justice" and bring the body of his dead son home, it is unclear whether his ex-wife will join him. She was accused of trying to steal designer dresses worth $1,600 from a Lords and Taylor department store in Natick, according to ABC News. She was due in court in October for a hearing, but did not show up, leading to an arrest warrant which remains outstanding.
'It's one twisted story'
Residents of the diverse, working class area of Cambridge where the Tsarnaevs lived are baffled by how two brothers, one a US citizen and college student, the other a one-time amateur boxer who married and had a child, so seemingly integrated into American life, could plan such carnage against fellow citizens.
At Webster Body Auto in Somerville, where Anzor worked eight years ago, workers remember him as a hard worker, a "good body man" and a solid character. One told the Guardian that Anzor's aunt, who spoke English, came and spoke on his behalf. The worker, who did not want to be named, said Anzor was a "soft-spoken guy. I never heard him raise his voice".
He described how Anzor once pulled a guy off the street outside, after he had been hit by a car. "If that has anything to do with his character, that was it. He could have been hit by another car. He was the kind of guy that would do that. As far as anything else goes, who the hell knows. It's one twisted story."
Yasafi Vali, the executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, which held a candlelit vigil for the bombing victims this week, and Nichole Mossalam, of the Cambridge mosque, where Tamerlan attended services, are helping the authorities with their search for answers. They are asking congregants about the man described by Raslan Tsarni as having a powerful hold over his nephew.
However, they both believe the chances of finding such a man are remote. The mosques practice a "moderate American Islam" and are close-knit communities, not places where radicals are generally found, they say. Secondly, according to Mossalam: "The FBI have been sharing some of their evidence with us. And the FBI said it doesn't fit with the pattern of radicalisation."
According to Vali, elders at the mosque tried to engage with Tamerlan, after two outbursts in which he railed against preachers with more moderate views. "They told him, look, you have a clear choice. Either you keep quiet during the khutbas [sermon] or you leave.
"What he reacted to was the very moderate American Islam we practice in that mosque. He clearly had a view which was very different. He did debate with the preacher afterwards. The preacher did try to engage him but he held on to his own viewpoint."