They revealed who the mysterious men with the ATVs were near "Petrohan"

A group of 10-12 men with ATVs were in the area of the "Petrohan" hut hours before the death of three of its residents - Ivaylo Ivanov, Decho Vassilev and Plamen Stattev. A week later, the bodies of Ivaylo Kalushev, Nikolay Zlatkov and 15-year-old Alexander Makulev were found under the Okolchitsa peak.

Deyan Iliev is the man who found the bodies in front of the "Petrohan" hut on February 2 and was the first to report what happened there, recalls Mediapool.

According to Deyan Iliev's testimony, recorded by investigators and confirmed by Mediapool sources, the men in question with the ATV were in a restaurant in the nearby village of Gintsi. After noticing them, Iliev says, he immediately sent a message to Ivaylo Ivanov. The latter thanked him. A few hours later, Iliev received a message from Ivaylo Kalushev, considered the leader of the group that inhabited the hut.

Deyan Iliev testified that around "19.45-19.50 I received a message from Ivaylo Kalushev, which sounded worrying – something like a farewell letter". In his words, "the message sounded like: goodbye, friend, we are very tired and we have no more strength" and "go back to Mexico".

Iliyev says the messages were not saved because his phone is set to delete them automatically.

Deyan Iliev is one of Ivaylo Kalushev's relatives, but he does not live with the others in the hut near Petrohan, but in the nearby village of Gintsi with his wife Lolita, who is Mexican.

Iliyev says that the day before he went up to the hut, he tried to contact Kalushev and the other three men there, but their phones were turned off or out of range.

"This was very strange, because the hut generally had operator coverage and only in certain places the signal was lost", he notes. Deyan Iliev says he did not go to the hut "because the weather conditions had become very bad – heavy snowfall".

However, on February 2, Deyan received a call from Ivaylo Kalushev's mother, who told him that "she had received some message with very disturbing content from him". Deyan Iliev went up to the Petrohan hut around 9.30 a.m.
Who are the men with the ATVs? And do they have anything to do with the tragedy in the hut?

It turns out that the Ministry of Interior has already found and questioned them, it is clear from materials available to Mediapool. These men were on the off-road tour, organized by a person who often drives in the area. Initially, the group is smaller, but along the way they meet other people with ATVs who join them. That brings the total to 12 people.

This only became clear two weeks after the bloody tragedy, around which so many contradictory versions swirled, none of them substantiated and proven. And despite the widespread conspiracies and question marks surrounding the ATVs and jeeps spotted around the hut before the deaths of its inhabitants and the burning of the building, investigators have not yet officially announced what information they have on the case.

The jeeps

On February 1, the people with the ATVs were traveling along forest roads in the area, and at around 2:30 p.m. they headed towards Petrokhan and shortly after stopped at the place where the road to the hut diverged. There they passed a dirty black jeep with two men riding in it.

Then the group with the ATVs set off towards the hut, but on a different route. When they reach the fork in the road to the hut itself, they see that the road is completely covered in snow and there has been no traffic on it. A little later, the terrain becomes so impassable that even the ATVs start to get stuck in the snow. That's why the group decides to turn back.

On the way back to the hut, there are no signs of traffic again, but shortly after, they pass a second jeep. It's not clear who was in it, because this car has tinted windows. There is no front license plate.

Patrols


The three people killed in the hut - Ivanov, Vassilev and Stattev - were patrolling the area and often clashed with off-road enthusiasts. The people with the ATVs say that they did not get into any conflicts, even though they warned that these routes were not safe to drive on. The rest of the group, however, are said to have behaved in a threatening manner. They were all armed, mostly with pistols, but sometimes they also carried long weapons.

Messages are deleted

Iliyev, who found the bodies, was called by the police for a second interrogation. He stated to investigators that he categorically refused to give the password to his phone. The device was seized by the police, but Iliev explained that it was set up in such a way that it would self-delete all information if it was not active for a certain period of time. However, he stated that he did not want them to have access to his data.

"My phone does not contain any information related to the case," he told investigators.

According to various sources, Iliev and his wife, who is Mexican, may have left the country. Relatives of the murdered men said that they have not been able to contact them for days. There is no official information on this issue. As far as is known, Iliev is only a witness in this case, i.e. there is no reason or occasion for any restrictions to be imposed on him and he can travel freely.

147 pages of the file on the "Petrohan" case have been provided to the deputies in parliament. Among them are the testimonies from the interrogations of the closest relatives of the five dead men and a 15-year-old youth. There are no guarantees that the deputies have received all the documents. So far, there is no clear motive for the crimes committed, writes Mediapool.