Patrick Burns

Ivan Sent Me Patrick Burns

A charismatic, clever, and brutal young Russian Mobster had gotten away with murder. With a rock-solid alibi in place, he'd sent two of his hired assassins to brutally kill an innocent young mother. "When you slit her throat, make sure you tell her Ivan Sent You" were his instructions. And that is exactly what they told her when they killed her. It was the last words she would ever hear as her toddler son played in the next room. And as planned, at the time of her death, Ivan was safely hundreds of miles away, back at his home in rural Amish Country Pennsylvania. His alibi was air-tight and it had worked perfectly. It kept investigators at bay for several years. The only clue left behind by her assassins was a small blood trace. It contained the killer's DNA and was found on the murder weapon, left by the killers at the scene. One of them had accidentally cut his own hand while slitting the victim's throat. But the DNA was useless to investigators without identifying an individual to match it to. And that seemed impossible. That's because it did not match the DNA of their only suspect, Ivan Teleguz. So the murder became a cold case for three years, and it seemed it would go unsolved indefinitely.




But Ivan was not simply a murderer. He was also a trafficker of drugs, stolen cars, and guns. And his luck began to change when some of his illegal weapons began turning up on the streets 200 miles away, in Springfield, Massachusetts. That's when an ATF Agent began tracing them, seeking their source. From there, it was only a matter of time before that trail led him to Ivan, and to his hired assassins.




This is the story of how dedication to duty, and a commitment to following every lead in a criminal case, often sends investigators down unexpected paths. And sometimes, it leads to solving a horrifyingly brutal crime.