Federal authorities have asked to speak with Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, wife of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, her lawyer said.
Amato DeLuca also offered new details on Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements in the days after the bombings, saying “he was home” when Katherine Russell Tsarnaev left for work on the last day she saw him alive.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev learned her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a suspect by seeing it on TV, Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia, are accused of planting two explosives near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, killing three and injuring more than 180.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev did not speak to federal officials who came to her parents’ home yesterday evening, where she has been staying since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a getaway attempt on Friday.
Amato DeLuca said he spoke with the federal officials, but he would not offer further details.
“We’re deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this,” the lawyer said.
When asked whether anything seemed amiss to Katherine Russell Tsarnaev following the bombings, Amato DeLuca said: “Not as far as I know.”
Amato DeLuca said his client did not suspect her husband of anything.
He said Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, Tamerlan Tsarnaev cared for their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, Amato DeLuca said.
“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” he told the AP.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s awareness of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny as her relation to him and her proximity to both brothers makes her a key witness – witting or otherwise.
The eldest of three daughters, to emergency physician Dr. Warren Russell and nurse Judith, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had an upbringing steeped in the values of family and education.
Amato DeLuca said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was off at college and Katherine Russell Tsarnaev saw him “not at all” at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.
Katherine Russell was attending university in Boston when friends introduced her to her future husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a nightclub, Amato DeLuca added.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Katherine Russell dated on and off, then married in 2009 or 2010, the lawyer said.
Katherine Russell was raised Christian, but at some point after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev, she converted to Islam, he said.
When asked why she converted, Amato DeLuca said: “She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran. She believes in God.”
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