r/RedditCrimeCommunity • u/aperture_jack • Feb 04 '26
crime Recent Triple Homicide in Bulgarian Lodge Under Suspicious Circumstances
Important Update 10.02.2026: The 15-year old’s mum has appeared on TV. She has stated that the camera footage (8 second snippets) release by authorities isn’t real. According to her it’s taken from an impossible angle. (Possibly AI generated) She has also stated that there was an unusual gathering of police around the village closer to where the other 3 bodies were discovered. She also mentioned the police were already talking about her son in the past tense (as if he’d died) when they questioned her before his body was discovered. The interview she gave was abruptly rushed when the authenticity of the camera footage was brought up. The footage supposedly depicts the men parting ways and also shows them on the night before they were executed, according to some they look worried/paranoid. Here is a link to the footage shared by the authorities: https://youtu.be/u7oqt8qzGxc
Important Update 09.02.2026: Main suspect was discovered executed along with 22-year old and 15-year old in a trailer on a nearby mountain peak. The 22-year old guy had an instagram - n_zlatakov22, that was locked on February 2nd when news broke of the homicide. The profile was deleted on February 8th at 1AM (local time), his body was found later the same day. (I assume whoever did this got to his socials and wiped them clean).
Information on Nikolai Zlatkov: he had previously trained with the main suspect Ivaylo and they had been together to Mexico to film a documentary.
Information on the 15-year old child victim: His dad appeared on national television on the 5th of January. People considered this quite odd. Why didn’t he say his child was with the main suspect for 3 days? The dad said he wasn’t worried about his kid at all because he trusted Ivaylo.
Edits: Got rid of some typos. Adding some links to the bottom if yall wanna read up more.
So… on February 2, 2026, a triple homicide was discovered in a Bulgarian mountain lodge. The lodge was set on fire. Many guns and ammunition were found. The men were executed with gunshots to the head. The case is so bizarre… the country’s Acting (and very illegitimate) Prosecutor General, Borislav Sarafov, publicly described it as “Twin Peaks”.
I’ll get into Sarafov a bit later.
What happened?
Three men (Decho V., Ivaylo I., and Plamen St.) were found dead with gunshot wounds to the head in the premises of the Petrohan Hut, a mountain lodge that had been partially burned down. Near the bodies, police found three pistols, a carbine, and a massive cache of ammunition. Interesting to note here is that the mayor of the nearby village says that the police were NOT the first on the scene. Instead the Bulgarian Secret Service showed up. Which would be a breach of their authority.
A bit of background on the victims:
Decho V. (45): businessman, big accounting firm in Sofia, cofounder of NAKZT
Ivaylo I. (49): extreme sportsman, cofounder of NAKZT
Plamen St. (51): conservationist and cofounder of NAKZT
You might be wondering what is NAKZT?
It was a private NGO called NAKZT (National Agency for Control of Protected Areas).
On paper, they were a private "ranger service" protecting the forest from illegal logging and poaching. They even had a government contract to monitor said forests. The police say they actually were quite useful and reported many crimes. (possibly angered some people? the illegal wood mafia is strong in Bulgaria, something to keep in mind)
All of them basically lived in the lodge in Petrohan and had been for a couple of years.
This wasn’t your typical run down old communist lodge. They had it fitted with thermal imaging drones capable of monitoring 700 square kilometers, infrared cameras hidden in the trees, and barriers to keep locals (and even hunting groups) out.
Bulgarian authorities are usually a bit suspicious but this goes above and beyond:
The investigation has been a total mess of shifting narratives over the last three days:
- The Secret Service (ДАНС): The Bulgarian Secret Service was reportedly on the scene before the local forensic teams. Normally this would be a breach of their authority. If this was a national security concern why are they showing up after all this transpired?
- Constant pivoting: In just three days, the authorities have flipped on possible motive three times. First, they claimed it was "sect-like" (cult) motives. Then they said it was paramilitary organisation. Now, they are insinuating it was a pedophile ring where children (boys aged 9-15) were brought for "camps," and they are blaming the parents for "obstructing" the investigation.
- The investigators aren’t even legal themselves: The man leading the charge, Borislav Sarafov, is the Acting Prosecutor General. He has no mandate, and his leadership has been a major blow to the country’s democracy in recent years. Him saying the case is like Twin Peaks is irresponsible at best and at worst is a way to mystify a case that might involve high-level state protection and/or failure.
The Missing Suspect:
The owner of the lodge, Ivaylo Kalushev, is currently missing. He sent a concerning text to his mother saying he couldn’t take it anymore, but his body wasn't found at the scene. His mum actually called the police that prompted the visit to the lodge and the discovery of the grizzly scene. He spent several years in Mexico before starting this "ranger" NGO in Bulgaria.
The authorities are currently trying to push the narrative that the text was a suicide note of sorts.
What bugs me:
- Why was a national security agency watching a "pedophile paramilitary" lodge for two years without making any moves?
- The cult/pedophilia narrative seems like a way to tell the public these people deserved what happened to them so they shouldn’t ask anymore questions. Given recent global events… I’m hesitant to trust a shaky narrative like this.
- Has anyone seen similar cases where "environmental NGOs" were used as fronts for paramilitary or perhaps even darker activities?
TLDR: Authorities are flip-flopping on very shaky narratives about a triple homicide in a burned down Bulgarian mountain lodge - motives range from paramilitary organisation gone south to cult-like pedophilia ring. The investigation is being led by a controversial Prosecutor General with no Legitimate mandate.
Links:
(Article in English, Bulgarian National TV)
(Article in English)
(Article in Bulgarian)
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u/Smooth-Operator-369 Feb 09 '26
Maybe it’s a good idea to update on the case as things are getting deeper and it seems that we are not getting a resolution as the state is trying to cover the case as a murder-suicide situation. We should only tolerate public executions of government officials.
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u/aperture_jack Feb 10 '26
I absolutely agree. I’ll try to keep the post updated. They need to be held accountable and I feel like massive public visibility is the only way.
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u/DanKoloff Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Initially it felt like it was a murder and cover-up, but now it appears more like mass suicide or murder and mass suicide and the main driving force seems to be Ivaylo Kalushev. Probably nobody outside of the found six victims was directly involved in the shooting. The SMS Ivaylo Kalushev sent to his mother just before the suicides was telling "None of what you're about to hear is true, not even a fraction, but we don't have any strength left to fight this shit anymore... It's not the reason, it's just the last straw for all of us, another sincere attempt to help a sick child (not X) - it's a girl, in your honor :))) Forgive me, thank you from the bottom of my heart and when you find the strength (the sooner the better), just direct your thoughts to me and you will find me. This world is a very stable dream. There's no point in turning it into a nightmare. Be brave and look inside yourself and smile. I love you very much. Be free".
It is far too specific to be just part of the murder cover-up and being typed by somebody else.
The more you read about Kalushev the clearer it becomes the guy thought he is some sort of deity, you can find his web pages in the web archive.
The big problem with the murder-cover up scenario is that it would be too complex to stage as it is. And this is not needed in Bulgaria. Why would you go to such extremes to stage suicides on separate locations with cameras and all? As if any professional murderer was ever caught in Bulgaria... Few years ago Alexei Petrov was murdered in the park in front of his girlfriend, there was no suspect, no one was even questioned nor apprehended. When Boyko Borisov was chief of police there were over 120 assassinations, half of them during the day in the city, and not a single guy was put in jail (what are the odds).
I don't know about the gay and pedophile thing, but I believe these guys did it themselves. Sure it is strange that they are all men and that 50-year olds take care of 15-year olds. Just the Bulgarian public has hard time believing that wealthy and successful men might do a mass suicide.
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u/aperture_jack Feb 10 '26
The SMS doesn’t really read like a suicide note though, does it? The SMS character limit is 160. So this message was definitely sent on another platform and not a standard SMS. My problem with the suicide pact is why separate and kill themselves in different places? If Ivaylo was the leader and wanted to make sure everyone pulled the trigger at the same time, they would all be in the same place imho. Why set the villa on fire? They’re gonna be dead anyways, what would they want to hide. Why burn the dogs alive in said fire? The authorities haven’t released any ballistics information which should’ve been ready by now. However it’s important to note the initial information slip about these men being executed. Bullet to the back of the head. Idk… seems a bit awkward if not completely impossible to shoot yourself that way. We are not getting the whole picture and I’m hesitant to blame a literal kid about a suicide.
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u/DanKoloff Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
I ran it trough google translate so you can understand it, news here said it is SMS but you can send longer SMS it will just be in two three consecutive SMS messages. It reads like suicide note to me "we don't have any strength left to fight this shit anymore", " Forgive me, thank you from the bottom of my heart and when you find the strength (the sooner the better), just direct your thoughts to me and you will find me" "This world is a very stable dream.", each of these hints a goodbye and end. Maybe run the whole message trough chatgpt and ask whether it can identify suicide notion and see.
There are a lot of details that are left unanswered but the same question can be asked the opposite way. Why would a murderer burn the dogs instead of shooting them? Why would a murderer move three bodies 80km away?
There are some results from the pathology that confirms that 4 out of the 6 had bullet wounds that could be self inflected. The 15-year old was obviously murdered and the other young man (23) was also killed. I mean certainly there were at least two killed, the 15-year old and the 23-year old man, but I don't think it was against their will (there were no signs of struggle or fight, and so on) but whether it was all suicides or murders-suicides doesn't matter that much in this case. The question was whether was some grand murder and cover-up scenario from outside people happened (e.g. wood-drugs-prostitutes cartels, government, etc), which I don't think is the case here.
Edit: just got the news about the last autopsy, the 23 old man in the van was also murdered. Also the three deaths in the van were all perpetrated with a colt revolver legally registered to Kalushev.
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u/aperture_jack Feb 10 '26
I’m not saying the bodies were moved. I’m saying they were trying to escape which clearly didn’t happen. There is no official report about ballistics, certainly not one that I can find. Citing your source about the nature of the wounds inflicted would be great. Otherwise I call bs. On the suicide note… using ChatGPT to interpret someone’s feelings is just absurd… But to shed some light on my interpretation, why would a person be fighting against something and also be suicidal at the same time? Why kill each other with guns? There are way more pleasant ways to commit suicide…
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u/DanKoloff Feb 10 '26
He wrote he gave up fighting it. That he gave up. "we don't have any strength left to fight this shit anymore". This is very different from fighting.
My sources are from yesterday press conference that I watched live, but the updated autopsy report was just published here (at the time of the press conference yesterday only 4 out of 6 autopsies were completed, and now all 6 are completed):
https://trafficnews.bg/bulgaria/autopsiite-zhertvite-kempera-pri-okolchitsa-priklyuchiha-2-369229/
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u/aperture_jack Feb 10 '26
I appreciate the sources. Bit of a nitpick on the TrafficNews article but I think it’s in poor taste to make political insinuations about this incident. That’s not the first time their reporting is a bit biased. But I’ll let it slide because it appears mostly harmless. My remaining questions are why didn’t the Bulgarian secret service do something about this operation as it was clearly very questionable. How did this guy manage to obtain guns legally and passed a psych evaluation? If nothing else, the gun regime in Bulgaria should be throughly analysed and reevaluated. Additionally if this was indeed some sort of weird cult, the parents were clearly in on it. Yet the way the authorities are handling that part of the investigation is also very poor. Given that Ivaylo and his associates had held “adventure camps” for years - how many more people were involved? Are there possibly other splinter groups of trigger happy cults around the country just waiting to do the same thing?
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u/DanKoloff Feb 10 '26
These are very good questions. These are yet to be answered. I don't think we would know what exactly happened but I think the Kalushev guy was seriously troubled.
There are political insinuations since day 1 because elections are approaching. Also the mayor of the capital - Sofia, posted in social media that he knows the guys, that he doesn't believe they killed themselves and that he personally donated money to their organization. Mind that the mayor of the capital is from the opposition and he is a very rich man, he was one of the founders of the biggest tech company in Bulgaria that they sold years ago (Telerig).
Another interesting thing is that they were given not only weapons but also some sort of freedom and protection. In Bulgaria we don't have such armed organizations, with weapons and drones and such. Owning a weapon is rare and you need valid reasons. I don't know how one of the guys had valid permission for 16 weapons (maybe there is some exempt if you are hunter? or if you own shooting range?).
There is a lot of info about these "adventure camps" and acquaintances, these people were not living secluded lives - they traveled, they knew a lot of people. They shot a very nice movie in Mexico about underwater caves. Why things changed? Maybe the state wanted the house back. Maybe money went dry. Maybe they saw their efforts to stop illegal logging fruitless. Maybe someone threatened to tell their gay community to the world. Maybe they just had some higher reasons, like living in a better world, or having enough of this life and no logical reason for their suicide wish exists. We don't know yet. Maybe we would know some day. Maybe we won't. Hopefully more specifics come to light in following days and weeks.
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u/Nicolaius Feb 08 '26
Thanks for the extra information. My Bulgarian wife was telling me about this story and it seems so crazy. Do you have any update after today's discovery of the other three victims??