Alleged Boston Marathon Bomber's Widow Could Face Criminal Charges

By Mark Schieldrop (Patch Staff)

Katherine Russell, the widow of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, could face criminal charges related to the horrific tragedy that rattled Boston and the country as a whole in April of 2013.

ABC News, citing law enforcement sources, said Russell could face charges of misprision of a felony, or failing to let authorities know that a crime was about to happen.

Officials for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office would not comment on the investigation and whether charges would be brought forth.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brother, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, is on trial for his role in the bombings.

There has been speculation that Russell, who grew up in an affluent neighborhood in North Kingstown, RI, and married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010, had to have known that some kind of carnage was about to happen. She lived in a small apartment in Cambridge with her husband and pressure cookers and explosives in plain view.

Russell, who graduated from North Kingstown High School in 2007, has since moved to New Jersey with her family, including a young daughter. The family’s home in the Quidnessett neighborhood, which was the site of a media circus in the days following the bombings, has since been sold.

Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca, said that Russell was working 80 hour weeks as a home health aide in the Boston area and had no idea that her husband was involved in terrorism.

“Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child,” DeLuca said in a statement released on the day that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed and Dzhokar Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat in Watertown following a dramatic pursuit during which the brothers traded gunfire with police in multiple Massachusetts communities.

“We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriot’s Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane Tsarnaev,” DeLuca said. “Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted. Please respect our family’s privacy in this difficult time.”

Three people died, including an eight-year-old boy. More than 260 were injured.