The Netflix three-parter looks at the Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013 and the two perpetrators – but who is Katherine Russell?
Netflix’s latest true crime documentary American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing has arrived on the streamer, looking back at the horrific tragedy that hit Boston a decade ago.
Featuring interviews with police officers, FBI agents and ordinary people who witnessed the attack, this three-parter unpacks the bombing and how law enforcement identified the two brothers involved: Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
While the docuseries focuses mainly on the Boston Marathon Bombing and the events that followed, it also briefly mentions Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow Katherine Russell – but who is she and where is she now?
Here’s everything you need to know about Katherine Russell.
Who is Katherine Russell?
Katherine Russell is the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the brothers who were responsible for the Boston Marathon Bombing.
Born in 1989, Russell was raised in Rhode Island and attended Suffolk University in Boston, during which time she met Tamerlan Tsarnaev. According to The New York Times, Russell converted to Islam as Tsarnaev became more religious and after dropping out of university in 2010, they married and had a daughter.
Friends of Russell told the National Public Radio (via Mail Online) that Tamerlan was combative, angry and controlling in their marriage and was known to fly into fits of rage.
On the 15th April 2013, Tarmerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed the Boston Marathon bombing, killing three people and injuring hundreds, before stealing a car, taking its owner hostage and getting into a shootout with police the next day, during which Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed.
In the aftermath, the FBI searched Russell’s home and took evidence, including DNA samples, in order to analyse a piece of female DNA found on one of the pressure-cooker bombs used in the attacks. However, neither her DNA nor fingerprints matched those on the bombs.
Law enforcement also found al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine and other radical material on her computer, according to The Washington Post, however it was not clear who downloaded the materials.
According to BBC News, Russell’s lawyer said that she was doing everything she could to assist with the investigation and she didn’t know about her husband’s activities as she spent most of her time working as a health aide while he watched their child at home.
Her lawyer added that “the reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law [in the bombing] came as an absolute shock” to Russell and her family.
Where is Katherine Russell now?
According to WGBH in 2015, Russell now lives in New Jersey with her daughter.
Meanwhile, The New York Post reported in August 2014 that Russell had remarried, with Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s sister Alina Tsarnaev telling the publication: “Yes, she got married [again] and had a baby.”
American Manhunt: Boston Marathon Bombings is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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