How 6 lost lives exposed the catastrophic mistrust in the Bulgarian institutions
Disclaimer: I am basing this article on open-source research and my own opinions. I am not making any accusations – I am just sharing publicly accessible information. The following material will include topics such as suicide, murder, cults, child sexual abuse, child death and animal cruelty.
Three bodies, three missing people and a burning house
Shortly before midday on 2nd February 2026, Deyan Iliev, who lives in the small village of Gintci with his partner – a Mexican national, near the Bulgarian-Serbian border is asked to conduct a welfare check in a hut near-by. The hut is a big 2-story building, called Hija (hut) Petrohan in the past, owned by Deyan’s friend – Ivailo Kalushev. Ivailo’s mother has received a worrying text message from her son and wants to know if he and his friends are well.
Deyan goes straight to the hut to find three of the men living there lying dead in front of it, with the building still burning. He has known these men – Ivailo Ivanov (49), Decho Vasilev (45) and Plamen Statev (51) for years. Furthermore, I spent some time with them the day before and nothing was suggesting the events from 2nd February. The men have gunshot wounds to their heads with guns lying around them. Deyan calls his friend Ralitza Asenova and asks her if she has any contact with her son – Nikolay Zlatkov (22), who also lives in the house.
Deyan tells Ralitsa that something horrible has taken place in the hut and there are casualties. She becomes hysterical, hangs up the phone to Deyan and starts calling everyone who lived in the hut in panic. No one picks up – all phones were switched off. Ralitsa knows that her son, along with Kalushev and Nikolay Zlatkov (15), were headed to the Bulgarian seaside. She doesn’t hesitate, enlists the help of a friend to drive her and heads over to Bulgari – a village on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, where Kalushev also has a base.
As Ralitza is heading over to the village, Deyan replies to her messages less and less until he stops replying at all. Deyan and his girlfriend are now abroad – the last Ralitsa knows about him is that he was interviewed by police officers regarding the events in Petrohan.
When Ralitsa arrives at Bulgari, she is met by police, who prevent her from entering the house of her friend – Kalushev, and, according to her words, try to convince her that she didn’t know her son. The police officers ask her if she knows where the group has been receiving money from and what they were involved in. They tell Ralitza that the house is empty based on a neighbour’s claims that the people who were there recently left 2 or 3 days ago. The officers ask Ralitsa if she knows of a hidden key for the house, but she is not able to help any further. She knows that the three would have travelled in a camper van, but she is not allowed to look around for it, so she leaves heading back home in the middle of the night.
At this point, the news outlets in Bulgaria explode with the news and in the very beginning only very limited information is known:
Three bodies were found in front of hut Petrohan, all with gunshot wounds.
The hut was burning.
The dogs guarding the house were locked on the second floor and left to burn in the fire.
The owner of the hut was missing, along with a child.
The organisation associated with the burning hut had a formal contract with the Bulgarian government signed back in 2022, approximately 20 days after it was incorporated.
There is no surprise that this became the most intriguing story in Bulgaria for the last few years.
Source: Google Streetview
Bulgarian Politics recap:
Bulgarian politicians have had a really hard time forming a stable government for years. Mass protests in December 2025, caused the latest cabinet to hand in its resignations, triggering a procedure ending with a temporary cabinet tasked with the organisation of the next elections.
In the meantime, Rumen Radev handed in his resignation as a president of Bulgaria to pursue the opportunity to join “the active politics”, even though he has been a president of the republic for almost 10 years already. It is believed that now he is aiming at the prime minister post.
For decades now, Bulgarians are expressing mistrust in the official institutions and the authorities.
The last message to mom
The way this story starts is with a text message from Ivailo Kalushev to his mother. It translates as it follows:
„Нищо от това, което ще чуеш, не е вярно, дори и частичка, но нямаме никакви сили повече да се борим с тази кочина… То не е причината, то е просто капката, която преля за всички нас чашата, поредният искрен опит да помогнем на едно болно дете – момиче е, в твоя чест :))) Прости ми, благодаря ти от сърце и когато намериш сили (по-скоро е по-добре), просто си насочи мисълта към мен и ще ме намериш. Този свят е един много стабилен сън. Няма смисъл да го превръщаш в кошмар. Направи напук и виж вътре в себе си и се усмихни. Обичам те много. Бъди свободна.“
Nothing from what you will hear is true, it’s not true, even a tiny bit, but we don’t have the strength to fight against this dirt anymore… It is not the reason, it is just the drop that made the cup overflow for all of us, yet another sincere attempt to help one sick child – a girl, in your honour : ))) Forgive me, thank you from the bottom of my heart and when you have the strength (the sooner the better), just direct your thoughts towards me and you will find me. This world is one very solid dream. There is not reason to turn it into a nightmare. Do it out of spite and look inside of yourself and smile. I love you very much. Be free.
This massage was made available to the public quite early on and many interpreted it as suicide note. If Stela Dimitrova-Maistorova, the mother of Kalushev, sent Deyan to the hut after receiving it, one may think that the massage was a cause of concern to her as well. Initially, it was also disclosed that Stela had called the police after she received the message and was unable to reach her son on the phone.
The last confirmed activity of Kalushev was a Facebook post from 1st February 2026, quoting in full the poem “Fight” by the Bulgarian revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev, who died by a gunshot to the head in 1876 near Peak Okolchica. The last two lines of the poem are as follows:
кипи борбата и с стъпки бързивърви към своят свещен конец…
The fight is ongoing and with quick stepswalks towards its sacred end…
The mayor who was (most probably) not briefed by the police
In Bulgaria, when the police do a search, there is a legal requirement for civilian witnesses to be present. The presence of at least two witnesses is meant to ensure the legality and appropriateness of the process.
On Tuesday, 3rd February 2026, in the morning program of NOVA TV, a national television channel in Bulgaria, was aired a live-link interview with the mayor of Gintsi – the village closest to Hut Petrohan. The day before, the mayor was asked by the police to be a witness during their first search of the hut. One would think that the mayor should have been briefed on what he can and can’t say to the media during an ongoing investigation, but this didn’t seem to be the case this time.
Georgi Todorov told the reporter that at around 14:00 on 2nd February 2026, he was approached by the police and they asked him to find a second witness and join them in the hut where the bodies were found. When they all arrived at the hut, employees of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) were on the property. The police and the witnesses were only allowed to enter after SANS left. This is significant, because if SANS employees were at the property, this would mean that the murders were a matter of national security. Furthermore, it seemed that they made their way to the hut pretty fast after Deyan alerted the authorities of the incident.
Mayor Todorov claimed to know the people living in the property and that they were acting as “rangers”.
What is meant by “rangers”
The men living in the house were all part of a non-governmental organisation called National Protected Area Control Agency. This organisation was formally established on 10th January 2022 with directors Ivailo Kalushev and Ivailo Ivanov. According to documents specifying the activity of the Agency, they were supposedly training rangers in the area of Petrohan. The Agency even had a website, but instead of own images, they were using photos of American ranger organisations. When it comes to the way the Agency was funded, it was stated that its financing comes from “private funds and donations from people and companies”.
Furthermore, the agency signed up a contract with the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water whereby the Agency was supposed to “support in providing regulatory and control functions for protection of the environment and the protected areas”. The contract was signed personally by the minister at the time, Borislav Sandov, and Ivailo Ivanov (found dead on 2nd February 2026). The agreement was broken by the same Ministry on 25th June 2025 – the reason stated is that the contract lacks a clear objective and legal basis.
Mayor Todorov disclosed that a lot of guns and bullet shells were found in the property. Near the bodies he saw 3 pistols and a small carabine. There were traces of burning on the bodies. The bodies of big dogs were also found burnt. The fire in the hut started burning again around 20:00 and everyone had to leave the property until the situation was under control again.
When asked about his past interactions with the people living in the hut, Todorov claimed that there were between 7 and 10 people living there. They were claiming they protected the local nature, but the mayor knew that there were government employees who were tasked with this. He told the journalist stories how the “rangers” were preventing people from going up the mountain, berry picking or even going to their own land if it was past the grounds of the hut. The rangers have put barriers and fences, demanding the ID of anyone trying to walk by. The rangers were armed and had put CCTV on trees in the area (some of these cameras were seized during the search).
Overall, the mayor said he was suspicious of the rangers’ activities but never quite knew what they were actually doing.
As you can guess, this was a lot of information that some would guess should have remained out of the public domain so early in the course of the investigation. The mayor has been avoiding journalists ever since.
The “illegitimate” Prosecutor General who loves the movies
Borislav Sarafov, currently occupying the position of Attorney General, has had his authority questioned for years.
In the end of 2019, Ivan Geshev, was elected Prosecutor General, after he had no one else competing with him for the post. On 1st May 2023, a small bomb blew up near his car while he was travelling. There were a lot of speculations around the incident, including suspicion the bombing was faked. He resigned in June the same year. Sarafov, as his deputy, took over. In October 2025, the Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that Bulgaria does not have a legitimate Prosecutor General, however, there doesn’t seem to be a movement towards a new election. In the meantime, Borislav Sarafov very rarely appears in public or speaks with journalists.
This is why his appearance in front of journalists on 4th February 2026, made the news immediately. He expressed his deep shock about the “activities” of the non-governmental organisation, stating the following: “We can, under any circumstances, call the activity of this NGO god-pleasing and in the best interest of the society, the country and the children! You can read between the lines what I meant by saying this.” He disclosed, that SANS had worked on a signal against the rangers concerning child abuse, but the victim’s parents sabotaged the investigation by refusing to cooperate with SANS. He also likened the incident to “real-life “Twin Peaks””.
Right next to Sarafov was Denyo Denev, director of SANS, who denied SANS employees having attended the incident location, claiming that people from the near-by village were too incompetent to distinguish the different police and agency forces operating in Bulgaria. He said, however, that 2 years ago, his Agency had worked on information against the rangers and evidence of a crime was found, so the results were sent to prosecutors to progress the case. Yet, the Prosecutor General acted as if he learnt about the rangers after three of them were found dead.
Sarafov referred to the rangers as a “paramilitary organisation” and directed the blame to the ex-minister Sandov, who signed a contract with the group in 2022. He said that Kalushev was now wanted. In the end, both him and Denev, confirmed that the information they had for the groups was concerning paedophilia, a sect, unregulated activity and paramilitary structures.
The problem was that even if they were telling the trust, conflicting as it is, the people had no trust in them. In fact, a lot of people were getting convinced that the opposite of everything Sarafov and Denev were saying was true – that the three victims in the house witnessed something while using one of their high-tech drones and were killed as a consequence.
The Mayor who spoke out
That same day, the Mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, came out with a lengthy post defending the victims, claiming they were good people. He personally knew them and had donated to their cause.
Later, the Mayor will disclose that he donated 70,000-80,000 EUR, transferring the money into the personal account of Ivailo Ivanov. Only 59,000 leva (approx. 30,166.94 EUR) was formally accounted for by the rangers.
According to Vasil Terziev, “the activity [of the rangers] was conducted with the permission of the Ministry of Environment and Water and within the framework of the law” and “their aim was, by using modern technology, to showcase how a small number of well-prepared people can effectively protect a big territory.” He described them as “good, humble people, who had chosen to lead a battle with an unequal and often brutal enemy” referring to issues with illegal logging and poaching.
The Cult
Slowly but surely, media attention started to turn to the religious orientation of the group, and mostly that of the assumed leader – Ivailo Kalushev. It was known he was Buddhist. Even more than that, he had self-proclaimed himself a “Lama”. He used to call himself Lama Ivo.
Lama Ivo had created his own community, called “Sky Dharma Community” and made a website for it. Thanks to the Bulgarian YouTuber and investigative journalist Lyubo Jechev, we have a link to the now deleted website of Kalushev.
Although written in third person, it can easily be believed that Lama Ivo wrote his autobiography on his own website, so I will let him introduce himself:
Ivo holds many Buddhist transmissions and in the 30+ years of studying the Tibetan Buddhist tradition has completed a traditional four year solitary meditation retreat in addition to many shorter retreats and periods of intense study and practice. Additionally he has background in the shamanic tradition of Central America. He is also a certified hypnotherapist, adept in past life regression methods.
Lama Ivo was the head of the Shechen Thegchog Lamsang Dharma Center in Bulgaria from 2005 to 2012 and the head of the Rangdrol Ling Dzogchen center in Mexico 2013-2018. In early 2012 Ivo somewhat distanced himself from the responsibilities associated with the Tibetan Buddhist establishment, in order to be able to work effectively with his students, teaching gradually a new cycle of Dharma teachings. Lama Ivo is currently residing in Europe with a group of dedicated Dharma students, as the head of the Sky Dharma Community.
Author’s comment: From my own experience, Bulgaria is quite conservative Orthodox-Christian country and people, sometimes, are not very open to different religions. So, even the mainstream available information that he was a devoted Buddhist scandalised some parts of the society. However, it is evident from the website that Kalushev has taken this a step further.
The main focus of Kalushev’s critics, however, remained on his relationships with children in their early teens.
Source: Darik
Most clam father in the history of the world
On 6th February 2026, Yani Makoulev was interviewed in the morning show of Nova TV. He was talking about his friend, Kalushev, whom he had known for 35 years. He spoke about children camps held by Kalushev that his children have also attended. The camps included activities such as hiking, lectures, meditations and speleology. He opposed any claims of a sect or paedophilia. At one point he was asked and had to admit that his 15 years old son, Alexander Makoukev, is also missing with Kalushev.
Roke Adventure
This was the official name of the children camps Kalushev was running. Their website is now down, but archive can be obtained via WayBackMachine. Created in 1992, the camp had labelled itself “the first children camp in Bulgaria for adventures extreme sports”. Roke Adventure was running multiple activities, predominantly for small groups of children between the ages of 10 and 15, and later 14 to 17. The courses were either free or “under the standard price”. The skills taught in the camp included self-defence, conflict resolution, hiking, diving, caving and archery.
In 2022, the Roke was operating on a Tier level system. While tier C was demonstrations of sports to a group and children and tier B was working in cooperation with schools to deliver training to a group of 20 children, tier A+ was a specialised program for 3 to 5 children selected by Roke for a few months to a year training. Children who completed the A+ program were then becoming part of Roke themselves.
According to the “about us” page of their now closed website, Roke Adventure is a place where “children remain children forever, dreams are alive, the friendships are real” and “the flame of truth keeps burning”.
The main people involved in Roke as described on their website:
Ivailo Kalushev (Ivo) – The creator or Roke Adventure, he started a life of travel and adventures at the age of 12. Kalushev dedicated his life to extreme sports just a few years later. He is an eco-activist, creator of the first extreme sports web portal in Bulgaria, owner of Diving Mexico and few other organisations around the world. Kalushev is a senior instructor in speleology, mountaineering and rock climbing, cave diving, emergency rescue and survival in extreme conditions. He is a sailor, captain of one of the few Bulgarian trans-Atlantic sailing voyages, paraglider pilot, international instructor and martial arts judge. He is also a movie director and a photographer. Kalushev describes himself with the following quote from Henry Adams: “A teacher affects eternity; He can never tell where his influence stops.”, because most of all he was a teacher “who was giving his all” in his teachings.
Deyan Iliev – Joining Roke in 2002, he has travelled with Kalushev around the world, including to India, Nepal and Bhutan. He is also a sailor and he also lived in Mexico. He describes himself with the quote “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself” by Jim Morrison.
Nikolay Zlatkov (Nikki) – At the age of 11 in Mexico, Nikki became the world’s youngest certified cave diver. “Ivo’s personal student – “unusual childhood” are weak words to describe a life from an early age on two continents, completely immersed in the world of travel and extreme sports.” He describes himself with the following quote: “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young” – Theodore Roosevelt.
Ivailo Ivanov (Ivei) – Solicitor, who was with Roke for 15 years in 2022. He is described as “active environmentalist and main driver of the initiative to introduce mountain rangership in Bulgaria.” Ivanov was said to be capable of making the impossible possible. He was the person managing the relations between Roke and all partner organisations.
Plame Statev – With Roke for 20 years in 2022, a traveller and explorer.
All the above men were actively involved with the children attending their camps. “During the first 15 years of our existence, more than a thousand children and young people between the ages of 10 and 19 went through the school’s courses and programs.”
From their website, it’s also evident that in 2013, Roke Adventure set up base in Mexico and operated as Diving Mexico in the Yucatan area. “In Mexico, Roke owns the world’s longest underwater cave with a single entrance – Sistema Ixtlan – and our operations currently span two continents and several countries.”
Yani Makoulev was calm and said he had “full trust” in Kalushev. He hasn’t had any contact with his son since 29th January 2026, but his intuition of a “sportsman and a father” was telling him everything was fine. He was convinced that the three people whose bodies were found in the hut were killed and now Kalushev was hiding with Yani’s son and another young man – Nikolay Zlatkov (22). Yani was suspecting the three might be on the Bulgarian seaside, as this is where they were on 29th January.
The next day, 7th February 2026, Yani appeared in an interview on Darik Radio. He admitted proudly that he gave up his son to live with Kalushev, because this way Alexander was going to get a significantly better education. He refused to comment on the exact reason he needed to send his son to Kalushev, but admitted that his family lacked the time and finances to provide Alexander with the support he needed.
Yani was adamant that the guns found in the hut were airsoft and speculated that the real killer may have spread guns inside the property to “cover his tracks”.
At this point, the Bulgarian National Television comes out with the information that the the phones of the three missing men, one of whom is Yani’s son, were switched off since 1st February 2026, and were last pinging in the area of Petrohan. Yani was still very calm and confident they were all fine and in hiding. He claimed that Kalushev was on “high level mentally and spiritually” and he trusted him.
The camper van near the peak
On Sunday, 8th February 2026, a local security guard drives to look on his property in the Okolchica area, when he sees a camper van. He thinks it’s weird for such a vehicle to be in this area, so he beeps at the van a couple of times, but no one comes out of it. He stops his car and goes out to take a look at the van. No one is sitting in the driver’s seat, but on the right seat, there is a human leaning against the window. The guard left the scene and called emergency services.
When the authorities arrived, three bodies were found in the camper van. They were later identified as the bodies of Ivalio Kalushev (51), Nikolay Zlatkov (22) and Alexander Makoulev (15). One of the first facts surrounding the crime scene, disclosed by the authorities, is that the youngest victim was found in a kneeling position with his fingers crossed – implying that he was murdered.
The press-conference with the CCTV
On Monday, 9th February 2026, a formal press-conference was held on both cases – Petrohan and Okolchica. In presence are people, representing various institutions: Police, Medical Examiner office, Fire and rescue, Institute of Criminology and Prosecution. Between all experts and people involved in the investigation in different ways, the following was disclosed:
There were 8 pending digital examinations, which included examinations of phones, CCTV footage, computers and hard drives.
The prosecution has interrogated 15 people (which was presented as a lot by the prosecutor).
A report was made to the prosecutors’ office in February 2025 regarding sexual assault committed against a minor, connected to the people living in the hut, but relatives and parents of the said minor refused to support the investigation.
All 6 victims were living in the hut that was found burning on 2nd February.
Next to the bodies found in front of the hut, investigators found 2 pistols and a shotgun.
Kalushev, Nikolay and Alexander were in the Black Sea area between 27th and 31st January 2026. Then they travelled back to hut Petrohan. In the morning of 2nd February 2026, the three left the hut and headed towards Okolchica. Based on private and council CCTV, their campervan was traced up to a village called Chelopech, on the wait to the peak next to which their bodies were later found.
Kalushev had a Starlink Station that was last active on 3rd February 2026.
A relative of one of the victims shared that there has been “psychological instability and despair” amongst the group for about a month or two before the incidents. They were unhappy about the way they were treated by the government and their sponsors and they were struggling to see a way forward for their organisation. It was discussed that “Death is an exit”, but on one assumed that the outcome might be 6 deaths.
For the people living or visiting the hit, there was a mandatory requirement for daily spiritual practices. Video from one of the rooms was projected:
Source: YouTube
The ID card fail
On the evening of 9th February 2026, the mother of Nikolay Zlatkov, Ralitsa Asenova, called Nova TV and demanded to be put on a live link immediately. She was broadcast live during a segment after the main news broadcast for the day. In an unprecedented move, the anchorman, Nikolay Doynov, asked Ralitsa to put her National ID card to the camera, so the producer could confirm her identity. She did so, which caused an outpour of comments regarding this obvious GDPR breach. On the YouTube recording her details were blurred, but people who witnessed the live broadcast claim her details were fully exposed.
Ralitsa refused to answer questions until she could present her version of events and ask questions of her own. She told the anchorman that there is a smearing campaign against the victims and their families. Ralitsa explained what happened on 2nd February purposefully omitting the presence of Deyan Iliev. She claimed that when the police spoke with her, they were referring to her son in past tense while he was still missing. According to her, the police had a narrative that the victim’s were criminals.
Ralitsa visited the hut last around New Year’s Eve. She was adamant that she had been in every room of the hut and there were no guns. She advised that the groups owned paintball shotguns because they created a paintball field near the hut, and sport bows.
Ralitsa also mentioned Milena Malionova’s Facebook post. Milena was a childhood friend of Ivailo Ivanov and she appeared on the same TV channel earlier in the day. However, during her interview in the morning show, she did not mention anything about a piece of her post quoted by Ralitsa in the evening. Namely, Milena had seen 4 jeeps heading in the direction of the hut on the afternoon of 1st February. Raltisa used this detail as a key point to her theory that the 3 men found in front of the hut were indeed victims of “professional murder”.
Ralitsa shared that the people living in the hut, the rangers, as she called them herself, were working closely with Border Force on a number of occasions.
Later, in the course of the investigation, the authorities confirmed that the group had helped them locate a murderer hiding in the woods. They were also helping in the training of the local police in Montana on at least one occasion. Ralitsa refused to answer the question how old was her son when she surrendered him into the care of Kalushev. However, she admitted this happened in Mexico and made the point that her son was “the world’s youngest certified cave diver” and we know, from the website of Roke, that this happened when he was 11. Therefore, it will be safe to conclude that Nikolay was 11 years old or even younger when he was left in the care of Kalushev. Ralitsa said that it was his choice, because he finally met like-minded people in Kalushev and his team, and Ralitsa was living only 6 minutes away from them.
The timeline according to Sophia Andreeva
On 11t February 2026, two of the most popular journalists in Bulgaria, Genka Shikerova and Mirolyuba Benatova, invited Sophia Andreeva – friend of Kalushev, to their YouTube podcast. Sophia was also a mother of a man, who has reported that he was sexually abused by Kalushev. This is not an ordinary interview. Sophia has known Kalushev since 2008. When her son, Valery, got addicted to marijuana at the age of 14-15, she took him to Kalushev, so he and his group could heal her son from the addiction. At this time, Kalushev was living with Deyan and Deyan’s girlfriend, most probably Nevena Staeva, in a house in a village named Kraevo. According to Sophia, a month after she left her son in Kraevo, he gave up marijuana and quit smoking cigarettes. This was achieved through sport, reading and meditation. Valery wanted to stay with the three and Sophia happily pulled him out of school and allowed him to fully move in with the group. Valery lived with Kalushev between 2010 and 2017, including about 4 years in Mexico, where she was visiting him once a year. Sophia bought the house in Kraevo at a higher price than the market value as she considered giving money to Kalushev’s organisation as an investment in her son’s future. She believed that her son would live with the group for the rest of his life. She drained her savings account with money she had from her husband and transferred it to Kalushev, including helping him buy a house in Mexico. She estimated that she has given him 1,000,000 EUR. In the beginning of 2017, Valery left Mexico and the group with a scandal. When Sophia spoke with Kalushev, he told her that Valery’s behaviour has been very bad for a while, but he was coping with it as she was a sponsor.
About 6 months after his return to Bulgaria, Valery started disclosing to his mother that he was sexually abused by Kalushev. Sophia dismissed the allegations immediately. She believes that her son had an agenda – when he came back from Mexico he tried to get money from his father to start his own business, but his father refused as he suspected Valery will give the money to Kalushev, just like his mother does, so Valery started making false allegations to gain his father’s trust and access to his money. Furthermore, Sophia believes that Valery was jealous of Nikolay Zlatkov, who joined the group after Valery. She claims that Valery was feeling entitled as she was sponsoring the group, but when Nikolay appeared Kalushev’s attention shifted on to him. She explained that the boys Klaushev kept close to himself (without her son) were tulkus (reincarnations of a deceased Tibetan Buddhist Lamas), therefore they were special and her son wasn’t, which caused jealousy. The tulku children were finding Kalushev somehow – he was not looking for them. In addition, according to Sophia, Buddhism is against sexual acts between men, therefore it’s impossible for anything like this to take place within the group. There has never been paedophilia amongst the group and “it’s the rotten society and Hollywood culture that makes it suspicious when children hang around a grown man”.
When Valery went to the authorities and formally reported the abuse, Sophia suspected that a man named Atanas Rusev, who pretended to be Kalushev’s friend but actually stole some of his work, became close with her son and was getting him to make false reports. Sophia found out about the report from Kalushev himself who warned her to “sort her son out because the situation was not beneficial for him [meaning Valery]”. It doesn’t seem like Kalushev was interviewed or arrested based on Valery’s report.
Valery had also approached Nikolay’s step-father, whose own son also wanted to join Kalushev’s group, warning him that he was victim of sexual abuse an this son might be in danger of he joins them.
When Leon (8 or 9 at the time), was left with the group by it’s parents, his grandparent also reported the group to the authorities. Sophia believes they did this because somehow they found the report of her son, not because their grandchild was a victim of actual sexual abuse. It is believed that this is the report received by the authorities in February 2025. According to Sophia, SANS and the Agency for Child Protection visited the hut and made checks. However, the report was closed in December 2025. All three – Sophia, Yani and the Mayor of Gintsi claim that police have visited the hut on more than one occasion.
When questioned about the latest activities of the group, Sophia advised that they were keeping the woods and animals safe and stopping illegal traffic of people. They were doing meditations, protecting not only themselves and the area, but the whole planet. Lately, there was a young girl with a health problem who joined the group – they were hoping she would stay with them permanently if they helped her. There was clear hierarchy in the group, which was evident in the mornings – Plamen would be cleaning the house, Decho (who grew up in the hierarchy) would be working on his accounting business in his room, Ivailo Ivanov was the solicitor but also responsible for making breakfast; while Kalushev and the two young men were meditating until 10 am. Kalushev was on top of the hierarchy, with the two tulkos (Alexander and Nikolay) being second in command. Therefore, the other three men had to make way for them as they were walking by.
The group was conducting patrols in the woods during the day, therefore, they needed uniforms and equipment – including using a drone to watch over the woods and patrolling against poaching and illegal logging. At night, they were meditating. The rangers wanted to work with the Bulgarian government, but the government had an agenda against “the green” (the ecologists). They were trying to obtain legal rights to expand their work across other villages and grow into an institution. She has never seen the group with guns, but knows they have hunting licences. The suspects were using it to project respect amongst hunters in the area. Last time Sophia saw them they group looked demotivated – this was when she visited the hut around New Year 2026. Sophia believed that Kalushev had extrasensory abilities. She also implied that young children are sometimes taken for lamas, so they can develop their supernatural abilities too.
Sophia calls Valery “the moral killer of the people who took care of him and raised him” and she doesn’t maintain contact with him.
The timeline according to Valery Andreev
On the same day, Valery was also interviewed by BIRDREPORTING BG.
To start, Valery admitted he was smoking marijuana when he was a teenager and he was not on a good path. He was about 12 when his mother first mentioned Kalushev, but Valery was not interested in meeting him. However, by the time he was 14-15, he expressed interest in Kalushev’s teachings and Sophia arranged for them to meet. Not long after Valery joined Kalushev, Deyan and Nevena.
According to Valery, the group was performing sessions, lead by Kalushev, where members would be encouraged to remember past lives. During Valery’s session, he was led to see past lives where he was a woman and had relations to others in the group.
One day, when Valery was 15 or 16, he shared with Kalushev that he was unsure about his sexuality as he was feeling attracted to both him and Nevena. This was the first occasion when, according to Valery, Kalushev was intimate with him.
Valery also witnessed that guns were being hidden in different places around the house. When he asked Kalushev about it, the group’s leader told him that the guns “didn’t have numbers” and were for self-defence.
When Valery was 16, Sophia, bought Kalushev’s house in Kraevo and put it on the name of Valery as an owner. The group used the money to start their travels. According to Valery, while they were sailing, Kalushev was intimate with him and was not even attempting to hide it from the rest of the group. During this time, Valery claims he was filmed naked by Kalushev and he has seen an image of another naked man on the group leader’s laptop.
According to Valery, everyone in the group was contributing to the cause. When they arrived in Mexico, they bought a house and land. However they didn’t have much success with their diving business and, while Kalushev was treating himself to lush cars and equipment, the group had to make sure they were careful with money. Responsible for the group’s finances were both Kalushev and Deyan.
Nikolay arrived in 2014 at the age of 10. After this, tensions started rising – Valery was worried about Nikolay and also admitted feeling a degree of jealousy. He questioned Kalushev if he had an intimate relationship with Nikolay but Kalushev denied. When Valery turned 18, he was sent back to Bulgaria for a solitude retreat that was supposed to help him better his attitude. However, this did not resolve the tensions. While back in Mexico, Valery kissed a girl and confessed this to Kalushev with the group’s leader becoming very angry.
Valery also reports that in Mexico, the group has killed the whole bat population in the cave they had on their property, which was in sharp contrast with the teachings of Buddhism.
One morning, Valery walked in the kitchen and was told that their group is now called Sky Dharma and they will follow what Kalushev says as he is receiving information from higher beings. With time, as the tensions were rising, the group’s leader repeated to Valery that everyone must do what he, the lama, says, or must leave.
“If the lama tells you the sky is pink, the sky is pink!” – Kalushev
Valery also alleged financial abuse – with Kalushev pushing him to go and ask for money from his parents. The group’s leader was telling Valery that he and his whole family were “obsessed by money”, making him feel guilty if he was unsuccessful in bringing in additional funds. Further to that, Valery was asked to withdraw his education savings account and contribute the money to the group.
Around the beginning of 2017, Valery left the group for good and returned to Bulgaria.
In 2022, Valery submitted a report for sexual abuse against Kalushev in front of two agents of the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (GDCOC) – they listened to him, but didn’t provide him with a reference number or any documental evidence of their conversation. Valery was with a friend, who witnessed the events. Later the same year, Valery met one of the agents again, but the agent was accompanied by a female colleague. It was early in the morning during the winter, but the female agent offered Valery a beer. He thought she was joking, but she still treated herself to a beer as she was taking his report. Valery was submitting the report with the hope we can help Nikolai, who he suspected may have taken his place as an intimate partner of Kalushev. He knew that Kalushev had a pattern – Deyan was under the age of 18 when he started living with Kalushev, then it was Valery himself, and now it was Nikolay. He told the agents about the sexual abuse, the donations made by himself and his mother and about his suspicion that Nikolay may be a victim too. Valery believes that his report was leaked to Kalushev by the authorities.
Valery claims that many children have attended Roke’s camps and they never became victims of anything sinister, so they might be shocked by the allegations. Still, when Nikolay’s younger step-brother expressed interest to join the group, Valery approached his father and warned him about what happened to him.
Valery was interviewed by the police twice after the authorities were alerted about the first 3 bodies. His first statement in relation to the incident was leaked to the media.
Valery is now 31 and lives in the same house in Kraevo. He calls the group a “sect”.
The children
Deyan
It’s unclear when Deyan joined Kalushev, but according to Velery, he was under the age of 18. Deyan was acting as a right-hand man for Kalushev for years – he lived with the group in Kraevo and Mexico. It appeared that Deyan did have a girlfriend by the time Valery joined the group. He seemed to be in Kalushev’s closest circle, however, while the 6 men were living in the hut, Deyan was living in a house in the near-by village with his wife. He is the only man from all connected to the hut with a partner.
Valery
As you can read in his story above, he was given in Kalushev’s care when he was 14-15 years old, so Kalushev can heal him from his marijuana addiction. Kalushev started sexually abusing him from the age of 15-16. Put in perspective, we can conclude that Valery lived with Kalushev and his group between 2010 and 2017, when he left. In 2022, Valery submitted a formal report regarding the sexual and financial abuse he suffered from Kalushev. And while the potential suspect was made aware of the allegations, there was no indication he was ever questioned or arrested.
Nikolay
Ralitsa Asenova, the mother of Nikolay, was a psychologist. As part of her work, she attended a hypnotherapy course where she met Kalushev. She told him how her son was remembering his past lives and later arranged a meeting between the two. Ralitsa and her family moved to Mexico where Kalushev had already set up a base. According to Ralitsa, Nikolay asked to stay and live with Kalushev and his group and she happily allowed him to. This happened around 2014, when Nikolay was only 10 years old. According to the group, Nikolay was a tulku and, therefore, high in the inner hierarchy they had. While Valery was concerned about Nikolay being sexually abused, he has never witnessed any sexual acts between Kalushev and the young boy. Nikolay died in the campervan on Okolchica. Ralitsa Asenova still thinks that giving up her son to Kalushev was the best decision she has ever made.
Leon
Leon was just 8 or 9, when his parents brought him to Kalushev. According to Sophia Andreeva, Leon’s family had many problems which made the boy very neurotic and suffering from multiple issues. In February 2025, the Leon’s grandparents submitted a report alleging that their grandchild is in danger. However, he parents didn’t support the investigation and the grandparent withdrew the allegations. We know that SANS and Child Protection Services attended the hut, but still, the investigation was closed in December 2025.
Alexander
Yani Makoulev, father of Alexander, knew Kalushev for 35 years. He voluntarily gave his son in Kalushev’s care when the boy was 10-11 years old. Alexander was enrolled in a private school called Cosmos near the hut, however, he did not attend school very often with his parents formally excusing him with notes stating he is attending sport events. Alexander was also a tulku, and he also passed away in the campervan along with Kalushev and Nikolay. His death, according to the authorities, was most probably caused by murder. Yani Makoulev still supports Kalushev fully.
The girl
In her interview, Sophia mentions a girl named Teddy, who was present at the hut. We don’t know if this is the same girl that Kalushev had in his care during January 2026, nor if she is the girl he tells his mother about. However, according to Sophia, this was the first time a girl was joining the group, so it would be easy to suspect all accounts are related to the same girl.
The girl met Kalushev and the group in 2023 in Italy, while she was at a birthday party with her father. Nikolay approached her in 2025 and offered to meet her. They did and she spent some time in the hut. Her father asked Kalushev why they got in touch with his daughter after so long and Kalushev told him they just had to because Nikolay had a dream with her.
The girl joined the group from 16th January 2026. She was dropped off at her home on 30th January by Kalushev, Nikolay and Alexander. People close to her said she was happy and that they took her to the seaside between 27th and 30th January 2026. Around 10:00 on 1st February, Nikolay went to her house again to drop off her luggage (which explains why he was not on the CCTV clips from the hut that morning).
The girl advised that the group thought that the house in Bulgaria was haunted. One of the neighbours told reporters that whoever was ever connected with the house, never ended up well. The house has been owned by Kalushev since 2022.
Cosmos School
Cosmos Private School in the village of Osoica, has an annual fee of 7,820 EUR. Alexander and Leon were both enrolled there at some point. Kalushev even recommended the school on his Facebook page. However, Cosmos’s headteacher Tatyana Zaharieva, claims that the school had nothing to do with the rangers.
According to her formal statement, Alexander was enrolled at the school in home education form for the school year 2022-2023, when he was in 7th grade. He was then enrolled in full-time education for the school year 2023-2024, but he rarely went to school, with his parents excusing his absences. On 14th December 2025, Yani Makoulev cancelled his son’s enrolment at the school.
Second interview of Ralitsa Asenova
On 15th January 2026, Ralitsa Asenova appeared in another interview on Nova TV – this time as a formal guest in the studio of the journalist Lora Krumova.
During the interview, she finally admitted Deyan’s existence and his role in the events of 2nd February. She said she is terrified for Deyan and his girlfriend, as both their phones were switched off and no one knew where they were. While he was at the scene, he told her he would call her back but never did. Since 3rd February, messages to him were no longer delivered.
According to Ralitsa, Deyan has testified about multiple bullet shells found in the house. She also claimed that when the police interviewed her, some of her accounts were disregarded and her solicitor had to fight to get Ralitsa’s words on record.
Ralitsa claimed that Kalushev has a will where he was leaving all his possession and money to A. Makoulev and Nikoay, which, in her words, is evidence he wouldn’t harm them. She distinguished herself from Sophia and Valery claiming she had nothing to do with them. Ralitsa denied ever making donations to Kalushev’s group.
Nikolay’s mother was adamant that the 6 men were killed, stating that her son told her that they were receiving threats from local poachers and troublemakers in the area.
Friends or Foes
On 17th February 2026, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, came up with a summary of their findings regarding any allegations made against the rangers from Petrohan. It was already know that although the rangers were supposedly helping the government, there are no reports made by them against illegal logging or poaching.
However, there were 4 reports made against the rangers, but when checks were done, it was discovered that during the investigations, documents went missing, omissions were made and cases were closed due to “lack of evidence”.
In February 2022 or, two members of the public reported that when they were in the area of hut Petrohan, they were approached by 5 rangers, who were acting arrogant and made threats against them. The allegation was formally made and recorded by the local police force in Berkovica and in March 2024 it was sent to the police station in Godech under which territory the hut is based. Later the document disappears and there is no record of an investigation.
In the beginning of 2022, an anonymous person, makes allegations that a Buddhist group with a leader Ivailo Kalushev, is committing sexual offences against children. The person making the allegations can’t provide any evidence himself, but can bring a victim to testify. From Valery’s interview we know that it was his friend, who put him in touch with GDCOC.
The authorities meet with Valery, who back then asks to remain anonymous as he fears for his life. He reported he joined the group when he was 15 and that by using manipulative techniques, related to the ideology of the group, Kalushev abused him sexually. Valery makes it clear that he did not provide consent for any sexual activity. He raised concerns about a child, aged around 11, who might be a victim of the same. He also alleges that photos were taken of the naked bodies of members of the group without their consent and that Kalushev was in possession of child sexual abuse materials. Valery also reported that the group owned illegal weapons.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs checks after the deaths found that there were omissions in the follow-up actions relater to this report and undocumented search operations. The investigation was closed in 2023 as its statutory time limit had expired. However, in 2024, SANS and GDCOC had conducted mutual operational activities relating to the matter, but it’s not specified what exactly they have done.
The grandfather of Leon, 8 at the time, reports concerns regarding his grandson’s welfare after his mother pulled him out of state school in October 2023 and enrolled him in a private school. From previously available information, it is known that this was Cosmos School. From their daughter, the grandparents find out that Leon will live with the “rangers” in hut Petrohan, who are “lovely people” and will teach Leon “useful things”. For the next 8 months, the grandparents see Leon only twice. During one of the meetings, they notice that Leon’s behaviour has drastically changed and he has become very closed and emotionless. Further to that, Leon’s parents allowed for him to travel with the rangers to Nepal and Tibet, which caused the grandparent to submit further allegations. Police officers from different stations investigate the allegations and on 19th June 2024 the authorities visited hut Petrohan. During the visit, they found children in their early teens – all of whom were there with the formal permission of their parents. Later on, the grandparents pulled out their allegations and the investigation was closed.
A report was made to the Minister of Internal Affairs regarding the contract signed between the National Protected Area Control Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Water. According to the allegations, the document was not signed on the official Ministry paper form, there was a signature with a missing name, the stamp was missing and there was handwriting on it stating “True copy of the original”. This report was forwarded to the Sofia City Prosecutors’ Office and the Minister of Internal Affairs have not had any feedback regarding it. However, according to the Prosecutors’ Office, there is currently an ongoing investigation if anyone who was involved in the matter from the Ministry side shouldn’t be charged with an offence.
There are many speculations why the group was not investigated properly for any of their alleged wrongdoings. None of the above allegations was ever taken to court, which makes a lot of their supporters state that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty”.
The main theory is that one or two people of the group were SANS agents or informants. Speculations around covering crimes to keep the informant out of trouble went rampant in the media in the days after the last 3 bodies were found in the campervan, with many still believing they were all killed. When questioned in parliament regarding the rangers, the leader of SANS refused to answer if any of them had been working as informants or agents.
On 18th February 2026, the authorities formally denied this theory and said that none of the rangers were informants or agents.
On the other hand, the rangers have convinced multiple people (including the Mayor of Sofia) to donate to their cause. In 2023, Mayor Terziev sent a letter to the Bulgarian Border Police recommending the rangers’ help. According to the records, they helped twice – once in the reprehension of a murder suspect who was hiding in the woods; and once during an operation against illegal immigration. Further to that, there is information that they helped the local police at least once during officer training.
The witness testimonies
The authorities disclosed summaries of the following people, whom their interview as witnesses:
Yani Makoulev – father of Alexander:
He testified that he left his son in Kalushev’s care 4 or 5 years ago. This was necessary because Yani has family and business issues at the time. Alexander was a student in Cosmos Private School and was studying online. He last saw his son in November 2025 and last spoke with him over the mobile application Signal in January 2026.
Elizabetha Makouleva (25) – sister of Alexander:
She has visited the hut only once in April or May 2025 when she saw her brother only once for about 5 minutes.
Nikolay Zlatkov, father – father of Nikolay:
In his testimony, the father shared that Nikolay didn’t want to go to school due to issues he had there. Zlatkov Senior received information about Kalushev’s group after Nikolay and his mother went to Mexico. What he heard concerned him, so he went to Mexico himself. While he was there, his son confirmed that he was with the group at his own will. The father met Kalishev without Nikolay being present. Zlatkov Senior asked the group’s leader how is his operation getting funded and what gives him the right to keep minors, to which Kalushev replied in a “ruthless and callous manner” that it was “none of his business”.
When Nikolay Zlatkov, son, returned to Bulgaria, he was rarely seeing his father. Whenever he did, he was always in uniform.
Valery Andreev – father of Valery Anfreev:
He confirmed that the reason for allowing his son to join Kalushev’s group was Valery’s marijuana usage. Andreev Senior also said in his statement that his wife has taken 750,000 EUR to donate to Kalushev and his group.
Lola – wife of Deyan Iliev:
Lola testified that she has never spoken directly with any of the 6 men, as he doesn’t speak Bulgarian, but she noticed that every time she would see them, they were “stressed”. Deyan told her that they were stressed due to “work”. She claims that Deyan told her how someone once took a photo of him while he was getting water from a fountain in the area of Petrohan.
She was in the car with him when he went to conduct a welfare check on his friends on 2nd February and remembers him being “terrified and crying”. He took her home and told her to lock herself in the house, while he went back to the hut to speak with the police officers. Deyan was then detained for 24 hours.
In Bulgaria, detention for 24 hours is a way to deal with suspects, not a manner of interrogation. As of 18th February 2026, the prosecution claims that Deyan is a witness and therefore they had no legal powers to stop him from leaving the country. However, if things change, they could look into legal instruments including extradition requests.
Deyan Iliev:
According to his testimony, the relationship between him on one side and Kalushev and the rangers on the other grew colder in 2021. The reason is still unclear.
At 19:50 on 1st February 2026. Deyan got a message from Kalushev in the lines of “Goodbye friend, we are very tired and have no more strength. Go back to Mexico”, but the message was automatically deleted by the mobile application Deyan was using. This made him worried – he attempted to contact the 6 men but was unsuccessful. He couldn’t go up to the hut at that time because of bad weather. In his statement, Deyan claims that he drove to the hut with his wife on 2nd February. When he went to check the property, he was carrying a little axe. He was in constant contact with his father.
Stela Dimitrova-Maistorova – Kalushev’s mother:
Around the same time on 1st February 2026, she received a message similar in context to the one Deyan had. This made her very worried. All night she couldn’t get through to her son. In the morning, she called Deyan and asked him to go and check on the men in the hut.
Children were also interviewed in the process with none of them reporting abuse. Furthermore, the rangers were described as “good people”.
In their own words
In 2019, Kalushev and Ivailo Ivanov appeared on the Bulgarian National Radio in their capacity of people leading Roke Adventure. In the short interview, Kalushev said that they have trained almost 2,000 children in Roke. “[Nowadays] children are more estranged from their parents and spend too long at school”, says Kalushev, blaming the state school system for robbing the children of their childhood. “No one is teaching children real discipline”, he says he had discovered. Also, according to Kalushev, it has become too hard to get through to 15-16 years olds and 11-12 years olds were easier to work with.
Autopsies
Petrohan:
Plamen Statev’s cause of death was a 9mm gunshot wound to the right temple.
Decho Vasilev passed away from a gunshot wound to the right temple. He had second degree burns to his face.
Ivailo Ivanov had two gunshot wounds to the head – the first entry wound was under his chin and the second (which killed him) was to the left side of his temple.
The guns found near the bodies were examined and only DNA of the victims was found.
Okolchica:
The authorities are thinking that the most likely version of events was two murders and one suicide. 3 bullet shells, most probably from a Colt Revolver, were recovered from the scene. A Glock was also found in the campervan, along with a Revolver.
All three victims died due to single gunshots to the head. Gunpowder particles found on the hands and sleeves of Kalushev and Nikolay, none found on the hands and clothes of Alexander. Kalushev and Nokolay were found very close to each other. Considering a Revolver was used, gunpowder particles could have spread on both the victim and the shooter.
Four mobile phones and a laptop were seized from the scene.
Pres-conference 2.0
The authorities held another conference on 18th February 2026, providing further information regarding the investigation. They told the reporters in the room that they know where Deyan is and that he is currently aboard (according to unverified sources, he is back in Mexico).
The police have finally searched the house in Bulgari, where Kalushev, Nikolay and Alexander spent some of their last days. Items were seized and religious literature wasfound, similar to what was uncovered in hut Petrohan.
“Seized was also key evidence of intimate character.”
All available cameras in the area have been reviewed and were made available to the media (and through them to the public) after the press-conference.
The authorities insisted that, after checks done regarding the allegations made by Leon’s grandparents, there were no indications found about an information leak towards Kalushev. The authorities attended the hut and this is how the ragers found out there was an ongoing investigation. Leon’s parents declined any allegations of abuse against their son by the rangers. Two days after the parents were approached, the grandparents withdrew their report. The original report was submitted on 13.06.2024.
However, the investigation still went ahead with multiple lines of enquiry including interviews in the presence of a psychologist of both Leon and Alexander (13 at the time). No evidence of crime was found and the investigation was closed.
While it was confirmed that none of the rangers was working as undercover agents for SANS, it was established that the rangers had connections with people in power and this was being investigated.
Nikolay Zlatkov, Kalushev and Ivailo Ivanov had gun licences and the basis on which these were issued became a subject of investigation. Ivailo Ivanov had a licence for 16 positions, which included 8 hunting guns, 1 pistol and 5 barrels and 2 silencers.
On 1st Feb 12 people with ATVs were in the area of the hut. On the crossroads towards the hut, they met 2 people in a car, who told them that the road was in bad condition. The group of 12 left the area without approaching the hut. They have not seen any tyre marks pointing towards the hut. Around 17:15, still in the area they saw another vehicle, a Toyota, but don’t remember any details about it. This was said to bring clarity regarding the information provided by Milena Malionova regarding jeeps heading in the direction of the hut in the afternoon of 1st February.
The hut was surrounded by an electrical fence. The fence had no damage to it. No evidence was found of the presence of other people or vehicles.
The CCTV cameras:
Camera 1 crossroads towards the hut
Camera 2 road towards the hut
Camera 3 upper chain on the alway to the hut
Camera 4 barrier – captures land surrounding the hut
Camera 5 back gate – the back gate towards the forest
Camera 6 parking – the north side of the hut, the garage and the back entrance
The camera holding most information was Camera 6 and below is a summary of what it captured during the last couple of days before the deaths:
Camera 6 Summary:
31/01/2026:
14:03 – Kalishev arrives back with his campervan. In the far end of the camera it is seen how at least two of the three men (Decho, Plamen and Ivailo) kneel and bow in the direction of where the campervan was gone. All three men then stand near the campervan and to Kalushev to come out. It appears that Nikolay comes out of the campervan and hugs all three of the standing men. Kalushev comes out next and Alexander also appears in the frame shortly.
16:35 – After Alexander and Plamen have cleaned the campervan from snow and covered it, Alexander plays with one of the dogs of the group, making snowballs and throwing them so the dog can chase them.
01/02/2026
06:57 – Nikolay prepares one of the group’s branded jeeps (silver) and leaves the hut at 07:11. It appears that the rangers’ car had a logo on them that was containing the Bulgarian flag and national symbol and the marking: “Mountain Patrol”.
10:04 – Kalushev is talking to Alexander, Decho, Ivailo and Plamen. Then at 10:08 he hugs the three men who remain in the hut and leaves together with Alexander in the campervan at 10:16.
Source: YouTube
11:04 – Plamen comes out and walks around.
12:10 – He comes out again, checks if somebody is not coming towards the back of the hut., runs back into it and then goes back out. Someone from inside tells him to wait, which he does, but no one else comes out.
12:58 – Plamen and Ivailo leave with another branded jeep (black).
13:50 – The black jeep returns and Plamen gets off it.
13:53 – The silver jeep returns.
16:20 – All three men get out of the hut, with the dog. Ivailo and Decho seem to look towards the entrance to the property as if to check that no cars or people are coming. Ivalo says something in the lines of “We are going!” and they all laugh. This is the part where they all say: “It was an honour!” and Plamen thanks them “for everything”.
20:08 – The men are out with flashlights. One of the men says “It/She is gone!”
20:41 – One of the men goes to seemingly pick something up from the back of the garden. At this point it appears that the basement might already be on fire as potentially smoke and light are seen in the corner of the building.
20:42 – All three men go out and head over to the back, where the garage is. The tape cuts off.
21:12 – The building is heavily on fire. Possible shots can be heard and sounds of broken glass.
21:21 – What could be 4 consecutive shots are heard, however, it seems that more follow. Considering there were bullets in the house, the working theory of the police, that when they were engulfed in the flames they cooked off.
21:30 – Multiple shots are heard.
The camera keeps working almost all night as its motion sensor is triggered by the fire. The bodies of the three men were found in front of the hut, while the camera was filming the back of it. One will have to walk from the from the front of the hut (on the side of it) to get to the back garden area, where the camera was located.
02/02/2026
10:44 – Deyan walks into the back of the hut. He runs out less than a minute later and sound weeping or out of breath. At this point the fire seems to have died down an was no longer active from what is seen on the camera.
10:53 – Deyan is captured again as if he was leaving the back exit of the hut, walking.
15:22 – Police tactical team is assessing the scene. They were said to be the first officers attending the scene.
From the cameras is evident that the police arrived at 14:35 with a marked vehicle and 4 unmarked vehicles. According to the official version of events, Deyan had reported three dead bodies and a burnt down house with three more people (including a child) who also were living in the house. While we can’t be sure what exactly Deyan told the police, the response time to this incident (according to the CCTV and the information provided by the Mayor of Gintsi) was over 3 hours. Also, no ambulance or fire brigade is seen attending the property with the first responders.
Police explained the delay with the fact they needed to ensure safety and had to wait for the tactical team to arrive from Sofia.
The camera that captured the suicides melted in the fire.
Background checks
In their podcast “Dneven Red” on 18th February 2026, the journalists Shikerova and Benatova presented the following discovery:
The mummified body of Bulgarian man, Borislav Peev (31), was found in abandoned building near a beach in Mexico in December 2015, with his passport next to him. According to sources of Benatova and Shikerova, he was related to Kalushev’s community.
Other journalists jumped on this information and BIRD provided further clarity, explain that Borislav wanted to join Kalushev’s group, but was rejected. Valery remembers Borislav visiting Kalushev on the board while they were sailing across the Atlantic and in Mexico. He also remembers Kalushev getting angry at Plamen for speaking with others about Borislav after his death.
The Mistrust
There are many reasons why this case is pivotal for Bulgaria as it exposes the deep divides in the society of this country. This case exposed in full raw view the mistrust Bulgarians hold against all authority institutions and their representatives.
There are multiple people defending the 6 men and firmly siding with Kalushev, being convinced that the rangers fell victims to conspiracy. On the other side, another big group of people thinks that Kalushev was sexually abusing children and was a sect leader. What these two groups have in common, is that both don’t trust what the authorities are saying. While the first group blames the government for covering up 6 murders; the second blames this same government for covering up a sect acting as a paramilitary organisation on Bulgarian soil, and effectively assisting a child sexual offender.
Every word that comes out from the police, the prosecutors or any other formal institution is being pulled apart and spun into multiple conspiracy theories. While the above exhaustive deep dive still leaves a lot of questions, following the timeline and taking in what people on both sides are saying, can help establishing some facts.
The next parliamentary election in Bulgaria will be on 19th April 2026 and politicians very quickly spun everything known to themselves and the public in a way that would cause their opposition to look guilty or negligence, corruption or cover-up.
Historically, Bulgaria has major murder cases that remain unsolved – such as the murder of Andrey Lukanov (ex-prime minister of Bulgaria), or the more recent one of Aleksey Petrov (businessmen with arguable reputation and links to the intelligence services).
Even solved cases, such as the murder of 6 people and their dog in a house in Novi Iskar on New Year’s Eve 2018, still cause questions. The person said to be killer – homeless child sex offender, who allegedly served in French Legion, was found dead. This made it impossible to have a fair trial where details could be disclosed to the media and the public.
There are also examples that cast a shade of mistrust over the actions of the police when they deal with serious cases. Including a case of a triple murder of a family in 1997, where the son admitted guilt shortly after the offence, and the leading officer invited a TV crew, instead of a solicitor, rendering the confession inadmissible in court. The name of this now former officer is Botyo Botev. He, along with others, made errors in their work in 1994, that cost the lives of 2 police officers. Botyo Botev is still one of the most sought-after crime commentators on Bulgarian television.
While some Bulgarians might be sceptical in nature, recent history shows that sometimes big crime cases are left without answers and procedural errors cause suspects to walk free even when the public deems that there was enough evidence against them.
Many representatives of different institutions state that this case is unique and this seems to be the only this the Bulgarian public agrees on. There has never been a case on Bulgarian soil involving so many sensitive topics at once.
While some call for international investigation and others are certain that the case will soon be buried under tonnes of news about other topics, at the bottom of the story is the death of 6 people and two dogs.
On a personal note, I would like to share that watching Alexander playing with the one of the dogs in the back garden of the hut is one of the most tragic things I have ever seen. People may argue about the levels of responsibility of all adults involved, but for me one thing is clear – this child and his dog were innocent. Both lost their lives not long after they were playing in the snow. I think that we, as a society, and as people, have the moral duty and obligation to find out why they lost their lives the way they did and make sure this never happens again!
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