[h=4]Katie Zezima[/h]Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, wife of killed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, exits a car at the home of her parents in North Kingstown, R.I. At left is her father, Warren Russell. Federal authorities have asked to speak with her, and her lawyer said he is discussing with them how to proceed.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow says she learned her husband and his brother were the accused Boston Marathon bombers the same way as many Americans: on TV.
A lawyer for Katherine Russell Tsarnaev claims she had no clue that her husband allegedly plotted the deadly bloodshed at last week’s Boston Marathon. Federal investigators visited the 24-year-old widow Sunday at her parents’ home in North Kingstown, R.I.
Attorney Amato DeLuca said he spoke with authorities and is now “deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a shootout with cops early Friday, just after officials say he and brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, fatally shot an officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PHOTOS: RELIEF AFTER MANHUNT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBER DZOKHAR TSARNAEV ENDS
[h=4]Stew Milne/New York Daily News[/h][h=4]Katherine Russell, front passenger seat, leaves her parents house in North Kingstown, R.I., on Monday. Mother Judith Russell is driving.[/h]
The younger Tsarnaev was hospitalized and regained consciousness Sunday night.
Authorities are trying to piece together a motive, and whether the pair had ties to Islamic terror cells.
The brothers, ethnic Chechens, left Russia with their family in 2002 and became legal residents of the U.S.
Last year, the FBI believes Tamerlan Tsarnaev made a mysterious trip to Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region — a base for Islamists.
RELATED: BOSTON BOMBING BROTHERS WERE HEADED FOR NY?
[h=4]WPRI[/h][h=4]The North Kingstown, R.I., family home of Katherine Russell, 24, who was married to and had a child with the marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He was fatally wounded in a police shootout early Friday.[/h]
As part of its investigation, the feds want to know whether Russell knew more about that seven-month sojourn.
Following her husband’s death, the young widow was spotted Saturday leaving the Cambridge, Mass., home she shared with him and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. She was wearing a hooded black coat and a leopard print head covering that hid her brunette locks.
Former school friends told the Daily Mail that Russell, the oldest of three daughters, was raised Christian by her parents, a doctor and nurse. She once had dreams of entering the Peace Corps.
At North Kingstown High School, she was a member of the art club, dance team and took part in wacky “mismatched/bad hair days,” according to the Mail.
PHOTOS: INSIDE THE MANHUNT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECTS
[h=4]Julia Malakie/The Lowell Sun/AP[/h][h=4]Tamerlan Tsarnaev (l.) accepts the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, 26, was known to the FBI as suspect no. 1 in the Boston Marathon explosions.[/h]
In her high school yearbook, she chose the quote, “Don’t take anything for granted.”
“She was just this all-American girl who was brainwashed by her super-religious husband,” said one unidentified friend.
“None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened,” the former classmate added. “She’s just not the same person at all.”
DeLuca said Russell met Tsarnaev, an ex-Golden Gloves boxer, through friends while she was attending Suffolk University in Boston. They married in 2009 or 2010, and she never graduated.
RELATED: INVESTIGATORS LOOKING INTO SUSPECT’S TIME ABROAD IN RUSSIAN CAUCASUS REGION
[h=4]FBI.gov[/h][h=4]Brothers Dzhokhar (l.) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (r.) near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where authorities say the pair set off two homemade bombs, which killed three people and injured more than 180.[/h]
Tsarnaev was arrested in July 2009 for violently assaulting Russell, according to the Mail. She later told Cambridge cops that he was “a very nice man.”
At some point, she converted to Islam for him.
“She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran,” DeLuca said. “She believes in God.”
Russell was working full-time seven days a week as a home health care aide while Tsarnaev cared for their child, DeLuca added.
RELATED: WIFE'S FAMILY OF ALLEGED BOSTON BOMBER EXPRESS SHOCK AFTER HIS DEATH
[h=4]© Allison Joyce[/h][h=4]Tamerlan Tsarnaev's house in Cambridge, Mass.[/h]
“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” he said.
On Thursday, the last day Tsarnaev was alive, Russell noted that her husband “was at home,” DeLuca said.
The Russell family has spoken with investigators. In a statement Friday, they said Tsarnaev wasn’t the man they believed him to be.
“In the aftermath of the Patriots’ Day horror we know that we never really knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev,” they said. “Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted.”
With News Wire Services
[email protected]
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow says she learned her husband and his brother were the accused Boston Marathon bombers the same way as many Americans: on TV.
A lawyer for Katherine Russell Tsarnaev claims she had no clue that her husband allegedly plotted the deadly bloodshed at last week’s Boston Marathon. Federal investigators visited the 24-year-old widow Sunday at her parents’ home in North Kingstown, R.I.
Attorney Amato DeLuca said he spoke with authorities and is now “deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a shootout with cops early Friday, just after officials say he and brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, fatally shot an officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PHOTOS: RELIEF AFTER MANHUNT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBER DZOKHAR TSARNAEV ENDS
The younger Tsarnaev was hospitalized and regained consciousness Sunday night.
Authorities are trying to piece together a motive, and whether the pair had ties to Islamic terror cells.
The brothers, ethnic Chechens, left Russia with their family in 2002 and became legal residents of the U.S.
Last year, the FBI believes Tamerlan Tsarnaev made a mysterious trip to Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region — a base for Islamists.
RELATED: BOSTON BOMBING BROTHERS WERE HEADED FOR NY?
As part of its investigation, the feds want to know whether Russell knew more about that seven-month sojourn.
Following her husband’s death, the young widow was spotted Saturday leaving the Cambridge, Mass., home she shared with him and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. She was wearing a hooded black coat and a leopard print head covering that hid her brunette locks.
Former school friends told the Daily Mail that Russell, the oldest of three daughters, was raised Christian by her parents, a doctor and nurse. She once had dreams of entering the Peace Corps.
At North Kingstown High School, she was a member of the art club, dance team and took part in wacky “mismatched/bad hair days,” according to the Mail.
PHOTOS: INSIDE THE MANHUNT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECTS
In her high school yearbook, she chose the quote, “Don’t take anything for granted.”
“She was just this all-American girl who was brainwashed by her super-religious husband,” said one unidentified friend.
“None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened,” the former classmate added. “She’s just not the same person at all.”
DeLuca said Russell met Tsarnaev, an ex-Golden Gloves boxer, through friends while she was attending Suffolk University in Boston. They married in 2009 or 2010, and she never graduated.
RELATED: INVESTIGATORS LOOKING INTO SUSPECT’S TIME ABROAD IN RUSSIAN CAUCASUS REGION
Tsarnaev was arrested in July 2009 for violently assaulting Russell, according to the Mail. She later told Cambridge cops that he was “a very nice man.”
At some point, she converted to Islam for him.
“She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran,” DeLuca said. “She believes in God.”
Russell was working full-time seven days a week as a home health care aide while Tsarnaev cared for their child, DeLuca added.
RELATED: WIFE'S FAMILY OF ALLEGED BOSTON BOMBER EXPRESS SHOCK AFTER HIS DEATH
“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” he said.
On Thursday, the last day Tsarnaev was alive, Russell noted that her husband “was at home,” DeLuca said.
The Russell family has spoken with investigators. In a statement Friday, they said Tsarnaev wasn’t the man they believed him to be.
“In the aftermath of the Patriots’ Day horror we know that we never really knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev,” they said. “Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted.”
With News Wire Services
[email protected]
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO