A camera recording from the Petrohan mountain lodge, released by the prosecution, taken on February 1, before three of the four men allegedly committed suicide. Photo: Bulgarian Prosecution.
February 16, 2026
Balkan Insight
By Svetoslav Todorov
Bulgarian authorities are investigating six deaths in two incidents in the country’s northwestern mountains as a suspected murder-suicide case linked to one of the dead, a cave explorer who established himself as a Buddhist spiritual teacher.
On Friday, the prosecution sent a detailed report to MPs amid concerns about the alleged lack of institutional response to earlier warnings of wrongdoing connected to the cave explorer, 51-year-old Ivaylo Kalushev.
Six people were found dead at two separate crime scenes but motives behind the incidents remain vague. The mysterious deaths by shooting have been dubbed ‘Bulgaria’s Twin Peaks’ by media.
On February 2, police arrived at the Petrohan mountain lodge, 62 kilometres from the nearest border point with Serbia, to find three men shot in the head. On Thursday, forensic analysis of the dead suggested that they died from likely self-inflicted gun shots, fired from point-blank range.
The men, Ivaylo Ivanov, 49, Detcho Vassilev, 45, and Plamen Statev, 51, were all part of a wildlife NGO that trained rangers to protect the area from illegal logging and poaching in 2022-25, in agreement with the Environment Ministry.
On February 8, their partner and the owner of the lodge, cave explorer Kalushev, was found dead in his camper along with 15-year-old Alexander Makulev and 22-year-old Nickolay Zlatkov. They were also all shot in the head.
On February 9, the prosecution released a short video from a security camera, which showed four of the six men parting amicably on February 1. The footage has raised questions about whether they had suicidal intent.
Officials have raised suspicions about Kalushev, who reportedly established himself as a Buddhist spiritual teacher, and his followers.
The head of the National Police Directorate Zachary Vaskov said on February 3 that police thought the first three men who died may have been involved in “a secret society that bares resemblances to a sect”.
Numerous, often conflicting, personal testimonies of people close to the deceased have been published by media. Some have claimed that Kalushev may have acted inappropriately towards teenage male followers who went to live with him.
Investigative website bird.bg interviewed one former follower who alleged sexual exploitation by Kalushev during hypnotherapy sessions starting from the age of 14 or 15 and continuing for the next four years. He claimed that Kalushev’s group of followers was “definitely a sect”.
The former follower, now 31, also claimed he warned the family of a 10-year-old boy he met with Kalushev at the time. He said the boy was the 22-year-old who died with Kalushev in the camper.
In 2024, grandparents of an eight-year-old boy filed a request for a probe with the State Agency for Child Protection about their grandson attending Kalushev’s ‘youth rangers’ programme. The investigation was dropped.
These accounts raised further questions about official inaction despite past suspicions of wrongdoing.
Balkan Insight
The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.
Balkan Insight
By Svetoslav Todorov
Bulgarian authorities are investigating six deaths in two incidents in the country’s northwestern mountains as a suspected murder-suicide case linked to one of the dead, a cave explorer who established himself as a Buddhist spiritual teacher.
On Friday, the prosecution sent a detailed report to MPs amid concerns about the alleged lack of institutional response to earlier warnings of wrongdoing connected to the cave explorer, 51-year-old Ivaylo Kalushev.
Six people were found dead at two separate crime scenes but motives behind the incidents remain vague. The mysterious deaths by shooting have been dubbed ‘Bulgaria’s Twin Peaks’ by media.
On February 2, police arrived at the Petrohan mountain lodge, 62 kilometres from the nearest border point with Serbia, to find three men shot in the head. On Thursday, forensic analysis of the dead suggested that they died from likely self-inflicted gun shots, fired from point-blank range.
The men, Ivaylo Ivanov, 49, Detcho Vassilev, 45, and Plamen Statev, 51, were all part of a wildlife NGO that trained rangers to protect the area from illegal logging and poaching in 2022-25, in agreement with the Environment Ministry.
On February 8, their partner and the owner of the lodge, cave explorer Kalushev, was found dead in his camper along with 15-year-old Alexander Makulev and 22-year-old Nickolay Zlatkov. They were also all shot in the head.
On February 9, the prosecution released a short video from a security camera, which showed four of the six men parting amicably on February 1. The footage has raised questions about whether they had suicidal intent.
Officials have raised suspicions about Kalushev, who reportedly established himself as a Buddhist spiritual teacher, and his followers.
The head of the National Police Directorate Zachary Vaskov said on February 3 that police thought the first three men who died may have been involved in “a secret society that bares resemblances to a sect”.
Numerous, often conflicting, personal testimonies of people close to the deceased have been published by media. Some have claimed that Kalushev may have acted inappropriately towards teenage male followers who went to live with him.
Investigative website bird.bg interviewed one former follower who alleged sexual exploitation by Kalushev during hypnotherapy sessions starting from the age of 14 or 15 and continuing for the next four years. He claimed that Kalushev’s group of followers was “definitely a sect”.
The former follower, now 31, also claimed he warned the family of a 10-year-old boy he met with Kalushev at the time. He said the boy was the 22-year-old who died with Kalushev in the camper.
In 2024, grandparents of an eight-year-old boy filed a request for a probe with the State Agency for Child Protection about their grandson attending Kalushev’s ‘youth rangers’ programme. The investigation was dropped.
These accounts raised further questions about official inaction despite past suspicions of wrongdoing.
Balkan Insight
The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.
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