Six people were found dead in the mountains of western Bulgaria over the past week, in a case marked by conflicting testimonies and unusual circumstances that led one prosecutor to compare the triple deaths to the 1990s mystery series "Twin Peaks."
“This is an unprecedented case in our country,” said Zakhary Vaskov, director of the General Directorate of the National Police, at a press conference on Monday.
The prosecution suspects that the deaths may have been the result of murder-suicide or suicide, and the uncertainties have fueled speculation and conspiracy theories among Bulgarian citizens.
On Sunday, police discovered the bodies of three people, including a 15-year-old boy, in a camper van in the Okolčica peak area. Investigators believe they are linked to a triple murder that occurred a week earlier at a mountain hut near Petrohan, which was later set on fire.
The hut served as the base of an NGO dedicated to nature conservation, although some reports also describe its members as “forest rangers” who had been patrolling the area along the border with Serbia for years and assisting the border police.
The five victims were members of the NGO National Agency for the Control of Protected Areas and lived in a hut, police said. The boy was the son of a friend.
No group members were available for comment.
Police released surveillance footage from outside the cabin, taken on February 1, the day of the murders, showing all six victims waving goodbye to each other. The three who remained in the cabin were later filmed setting it on fire.
Police said the members of the NGO were affiliated with Tibetan Buddhism, adding that Buddhist books and flags were found in the hut. Police also cited a relative of a member of the group who spoke of "extreme psychological instability" within the group.
Four shell casings, two pistols and a rifle were found near the body, police said, and forensic experts determined that the shots were fired from close range.
Police later located the remaining three, but found them dead in the camper. Two of the victims had head injuries, while the autopsy of the third person was still underway.
"For both investigations, we can conclude that one of the main versions we are working on is murder followed by suicide, or rather suicide," said Nataliya Nikolova, deputy prosecutor at the Appellate Prosecutor's Office in the capital Sofia.
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