Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
When the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor's Office are silent about a shocking crime with six corpses, but go overboard in smokescreens and labeling the dead, then the investigation is extremely inconvenient. It means that it affects people or structures that should not be on the agenda and/or there has been an institutional failure.
The behavior of the Ministry of Interior in the "Petrokhan" case goes beyond standard incompetence - this is a tactic that, for several days, ballooned the topic with muddy versions about the victims - and shifted the pressure from the institutions to the "profile" of the dead. After all, no one is against sectarians and pedophiles dying! And how do we know that they are like that? From flowing comments in national media and social networks, supported by stories, copies of a signal and the name of a child, which not only did not try to hide, but also revealed its origin. From suggestions of the acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, whose legitimacy is being disputed, and which are structured as follows: first, the situation is like the sensational horror film “Twin Peaks” in the 90s, second, the journalists understand it correctly, asking about “a sectarian network with pedophilia”.
This cannonade is opposed by memories of the murdered and stories of what “good people” are they, some of them - legendary cavers, underwater divers and researchers.
Versions of the investigation?
There is no clear and orderly chronology from the Ministry of Interior when the crimes were committed, there are no results of forensic medical expertise, it has not been reported what weapons were used and whether everyone was killed or some committed suicide. It is not reported what versions the investigation is working on, and this is normal practice, no details are needed. The media are fed crumbs - controlled information from anonymous sources from the Ministry of Interior. This allows all kinds of stories to erupt, directed by the producers - the investigators themselves, who do not refute even the most absurd ones. The environment is polluted with guesses and conspiracy theories.
Some of the hypotheses are related to some personal deviations and exoticism, as it is said that the murdered were “strange people”, “a closed group”, with “special spiritual practices”, “mysticism”, etc. These hypotheses are noisy, they wrap the story in mystery and turn it into a human drama, including psychiatrists' assumptions about “extended melancholic suicide”.
There is another one: they knew each other well, there was tension, control, addictions, after which the conflict escalated to an ostentatious murder. There are also assumptions that glorify them - they opposed the timber mafia, they prevented poachers.
The other hypotheses - about influence, money, (institutionally) tolerated activity as a channel for trafficking drugs, cigarettes, illegal migrants, remain unspoken and not so much voiced. Can the services have control over these channels and which services are we talking about? The region is 15 km from the border with Serbia and as part of the Northwest is known for the transfer of migrants.
That is why "pedophilia" and the camps for children are loudly discussed and, apart from Sarafov, supported as a suggestion by ... counterintelligence. The chairman of the National Security Agency, Denyo Denev, stated that the agency had received a "signal with allegations of sexual assaults against minors and underage children and paramilitary structures that were located on the territory of the hut in question."
The result is that society is losing empathy for the victims even before the murderers have been revealed.
Six killed in a week
Six Bulgarian citizens with no criminal record are dead. The first three - Ivaylo Ivanov (49), Decho Vassilev (45) and Plamen Stattev (51) - were found on February 2 in the area of the former "Petrohan" hut, the others - Ivaylo Kalushev (51), Nikolay Zlatkov (22) and Aleksandar Makulev (15), found in a camper under Okolchitsa Peak on February 8. With the exception of the teenager, the rest are united in the association "National Agency for Control of Protected Areas" (NACPTA), and also in the Bulgarian Association of Extreme Sports Ltd. Almost all of them with good businesses, who at one point lived isolated in the mountains in a hut bought for less than 50,000 euros in 2020 by Kalushev. He returned after a long stay in Mexico, where he founded a cave diving school, where Zlatkov, then 13 years old, also worked, as did Stattev and Vassilev.
The hut, which they turned into their home, is a massive two-story building with a capacity of 76 bedrooms with its own bathrooms and toilets, a restaurant and a cafe-aperitif, with another building attached to it and a parking lot for 20 cars. The inhabitants of the property had highly specialized drones of the latest generation to monitor an area of about 700 sq. Km, and all-terrain vehicles, which has been confirmed.
They also bought 5 acres from the Executive Forestry Agency (EFA) for 4,928 leva, with the deal being made on the last day of Stefan Yanev's second cabinet and Kiril Petkov's (PP) first government - December 13, 2021.
They also owned weapons, but it has not been officially announced how many and what, and whether there are automatic weapons, which are prohibited for civilians. Whether the open carbine and pistols in the former hut near Petrohan are legally owned, the Ministry of Interior could have announced long ago - the registration of weapons is through their service “Control of Commonly Dangerous Means“ (KOS).
The consequences
Bulgaria is entering another phase of early elections and the tragedy near Petrohan inevitably falls into the category of political attacks. Every rumor or assumption is directed against the PP-DB, and is also used against civil society organizations. The reason is that the Minister of Environment from Kiril Petkov's cabinet - Borislav Sandov (“Green Movement”), in 2022 signed an agreement with the NACPZ - soon after it was established. It gives it the right to mutual cooperation and “support in providing regulatory and control functions for environmental protection and protected areas” in the Western Stara Planina and the Fore-Balkan Mountains, which are protected areas and territories of NATURA 2000. The agreement was terminated in 2025. Among the sponsors of the NGO are the current mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev, the entrepreneur Sasha Bezuhanova and other representatives of circles around the city's liberal community.
"Twin Peaks", but not as Sarafov understands it
They all made public statements after it became known that they supported the organization. Screenshots from the NGO's website showed this, although the information was deleted in December last year.
The appearance of teams from the National Security Agency and the Bulgarian Anti-Corruption Bureau at the crime scenes fuel speculation that this is not an ordinary criminal case for hermits in the mountains. While the investigation is shrouded in secrecy, competing versions and rumors are at the forefront. Society remains in the gray area between facts and insinuations. Empathy has eroded there, and law enforcement agencies serve as a cover for inconvenient truths.
The case is reminiscent of “Twin Peaks“, but not as Sarafov understands it, but as directed by David Lynch. On the surface - mystery and horror, but underneath lies violence, collective silence and institutional blindness.