"My friend, I love you very much! I want to see you, we must see you!" — these are words that several relatives of Todor Slavkov, grandson of Todor Zhivkov, will remember forever. A week before he took his life in a guest house in the village of Asen, he contacted his friends to call them with warm, farewell words.
One of them, who requested anonymity, says, quoted by "Bulgaria Dnes", that he felt the change in Toshko's voice two weeks ago.
"He was sad, depressed, he said that he loved me very much. I didn't manage to see him then. "I will never forgive myself for this," the man admits.
The tragic incident occurred on July 21st - the day that Toshko's mother, Lyudmila Zhivkova, died mysteriously 44 years ago. The same date also claimed the life of his uncle. Whether the choice of the date was a conscious act, marked by long-standing trauma, or simply an eerie coincidence, remains unknown.
Businessman Hristo Krusharski, a close friend of the Zhivkov family, says that Toshko asked him to use the villa in the village of Asen. "He wanted to be alone. I couldn't refuse him - we were friends with his father," he says. Slavkov spent exactly two weeks there.
When he stopped answering calls on Monday, his friends became worried. Krusharski sent one of the maids, who found him lifeless. She called him and said: “The worst has happened.“
The police and forensic doctors quickly arrived at the scene. A pre-trial investigation for incitement to suicide has been initiated - a standard procedure in such cases. The initial forensic examination shows that it was a self-inflicted gunshot, without traces of violence.
For years, Toshko Slavkov had been carrying a gun, his acquaintances say, and it was probably with it that he ended his life.
In an interview from 2011, Toshko said that he had never thought about suicide, despite the depressions he had experienced. However, his friends believe that something serious was weighing on him. Some suspect that he could have been sick, but did not share his personal suffering.
"He was a strong man. With a big soul and a big heart," says a relative.
The investigation continues under the supervision of the District Prosecutor's Office in Stara Zagora. Authorities are collecting additional evidence to definitively clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of Todor Slavkov - a man marked by history, but who remained faithful to his loved ones until the end.