Six people were found dead in the mountains of western Bulgaria last week, in a case marked by conflicting details and strange circumstances that led a prosecutor to compare the two triple deaths to the 1990s mystery series “Twin Peaks.”
Four shell casings, two handguns and a rifle were found near the body, police said, and forensic experts determined the shots were fired at close range. (Representative Image/Unsplash)”This is a case without comparison in our country,” Zahari Vaskov, director of the National Police General Directorate, told a press conference on Monday.
Prosecutors suspect the deaths could be murder-suicides or suicides, a lack of clarity that has fueled speculation and conspiracy theories among Bulgarians.
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On Sunday, police discovered the bodies of three people, including a 15-year-old boy, in a camper van in the Okolchitsa Peak area. Investigators believe they were linked to a triple killing that took place a week earlier in a mountain hut near Petrohan, which was later burned down.
The hut was used as the base of a non-governmental organization dedicated to nature protection, although some accounts also describe its members as “forest rangers” who for years patrolled the area near the Serbian border and assisted the border police.
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Five of the dead were members of the National Agency for Control of Protected Areas NGO and lived in the hut, police said. The boy was a friend’s son.
No member of the group could be reached for comment.
Police released CCTV footage from outside the hut recorded on February 1, the day of the murder, showing the six victims saying goodbye to each other. The three who remained in the hut were later videoed setting the fire.
Police said the NGO members were involved in Tibetan Buddhism, adding that Buddhist books and banners were found inside the hut. Police also quoted a relative of one of the members who spoke of “tremendous emotional turmoil” within the group.
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Four shell casings, two handguns and a rifle were found near the body, police said, and forensic experts determined the shots were fired at close range.
Police later located the other three, only to find them dead in the camper van. Two of the dead had head injuries, while the autopsy of the third is still underway.
“For both investigations we can conclude that one of the main versions we are working with is murder-suicide and suicide,” said Natalia Nikolova, acting chief prosecutor at the capital Sofia’s appeals prosecutor’s office.
