Newton Family Friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Urged Him to Turn Himself In

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body reportedly finally has been whisked away from Worcester and off to an unspecified place for burial.

Meantime, among the stories filtering out about the Tsarnaev family's life in the Boston area comes a tale of family friends from Newton who tried to convince Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to give himself up to police.

Dzhokhar is Tamerlan's brother, who also stands accused of death and destruction in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings.

The New York Review of Books, in a piece called The Bombers' World profiles the Mazaev family of Newton, who say they were among the first Chechen families to flee to Boston in the 1990s after their homeland erupted in war. 

Among the few ethnic Chechen families in the Boston area, the Mazaevs say they worked to welcome the Tsarnaevs who came a few years later.

18-year old Baudy Mazaev grew up with Dzhokhar. Baudy told The New York Times about the changes in Dzhokhar — and in Tamerlan and in the relationship between the two brothers — in an in-depth profile of Dzhokar called The Dark Side, Carefully Masked.

The Times story says Baudy and Dzhokhar were in touch by text message after the bombings:

The afternoon of April 15, Mr. Tsarnaev’s other Chechen friend Mr. Mazaev received a text message from him. The marathon had been bombed, and the city was in chaos. “Yo buddy are yu ok man?” Mr. Tsarnaev asked.

“Two bombs went off,” Mr. Mazaev replied. “People losing limbs.”

“Yeah man we good mashallah,” Mr. Tsarnaev wrote back, using an Arabic phrase often spoken upon hearing good news. “I automatically thought of yu man Boston and what not.”

Mr. Mazaev replied, “It’s crazy I was bouta go watch that with friends but slept through it today.”

The response: “Alrighty man stay safe my man, keep in touch.”

Four days later, with Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar on the run, Mr. Mazaev tapped out another message on his iPhone: “Jahar man if u can read this just turn urself in for the sake of ur parents. Ull be so much safer there’s no reason for all of this just do it for everyone’s sake,” it read in part. “DON’T MAKE IT ANY WORSE.”

Mr. Tsarnaev never replied.

Baudy Mazaev told a WCVB investigative team that the FBI has interviewed him about those text messages.