site.btaForensic Findings Presented during Briefing on Petrohan-Okolchitsa Murders Case

Forensic experts and a prosecutor gave a briefing here on Monday to reveal additional details concerning the Petrohan-Okolchitsa multiple murders case - a high-profile criminal case in which five men and a 15-year-old boy met a violent death between February 1 and 8, 2026. Their bodies were found at two remote mountain locations in Northwestern Bulgaria: a lodge near the Petrohan Pass and a camper van near Okolchitsa Peak. Forensic experts established in the past that all six died of gunshot wounds. Law enforcement officials said the principal leads they followed, based on ballistics findings, the causes of death have been identified as suicide at the lodge and homicide and suicide in the camper. 

Ivaylo Kalushev fired the shots at Okolchitsa, Associate Professor Aleksandar Aleksandrov, head of the Clinic of Forensic Medicine and Deontology at Aleksandrovska University Hospital, said at a news conference concerning the case. Aleksandrov said only one firearm had been used in the camper deaths.

Criminal psychologist Rosen Yordanov described Kalushev as the initiator and instigator of the events, saying he controlled the group and had intended in advance to kill members of it.

Yordanov also said Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev had an agreement with Kalushev for him to provide security at Vitosha Nature Park and questioned how funds provided by Terziev to the Petrohan group had been spent. Terziev has said back in February that he donated BGN 251,000 to the organization and later said he had provided Kalushev with approximately EUR 70,000-80,000.  He also said that he personally knew the victims near Petrohan. “Everyone who has had contact with them can say the same thing: good, modestly living people who chose to fight an uneven and often brutal enemy. None of us knows exactly what led to the tragedy. But what is happening now is a disgrace,” the Sofia mayor said in a post on his Facebook profile.

Meanwhile, Deputy Sofia Appellate Prosecutor Natalia Nikolova said the conclusion that there had been no outside involvement in the case remained unchanged. She said all versions were being investigated but there was no evidence of any outside presence at either Okolchitsa Peak or the Petrohan lodge.