Friends Karen McWatters and Krystle Campbell were caught in the blast together. As Karen was being evacuated by medics, a stranger rushed to her and handed her what was thought to be Karen’s phone — but it was in fact Krystle’s phone. This led to a mixup wherein Krystle’s family thought that their loved one was at the hospital and pulling through when, in fact, Krystle was one of the three people who died in the blast. After spending a night believing that Krystle was alive, they were then informed that, in actuality, it was Karen who survived.

The Boston FBI office’s cyber squad was overwhelmed with data sent in from people who were eyewitnesses to the bombing, including tens of thousands of emails and hundreds of thousands of videos. And later when the photos of the suspects were released wide, the tip website received 40 million hits at once.

Like out of a movie, Assistant Special Agent in Charge John Foley had just alerted the FBI of his intent to retire and was on vacation with his family in Arizona when the bombing happened. Foley was known for working on intense cases involving gangs and drugs and violence, so much so that Foley called himself a “shit magnet.” Upon seeing the images from the bombing and knowing her husband’s specialty, Foley’s wife told him, “Go get those motherfuckers.”

President Obama was briefed on the bombing by his national security team and FBI Director Robert Mueller. This isn’t a shocking fact in and of itself; it’s just surprising hearing Mueller’s name from back in the days when he was just the FBI director and not the lead of a special counsel investigation into the Russian influence on the 2016 election.

Around 34 minutes into Episode 1, following a clip of President Obama’s address to the nation and a rapid rewind of footage of a decade’s worth of conflicts within the Middle East, American Manhunt throws in an extremely up close shot of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. It’s shocking considering that while these events happened within the context of post-9/11 America and anti-Muslim sentiment, you don’t expect to see footage of thousands of people dying all at once in a documentary about the Boston Marathon bombing. Warning for the documentary as a whole, though: American Manhunt uses surveillance and iPhone footage to show pretty much every heinous act that happened during the bombing and the subsequent chase.

… at least that’s what Boston Marathon runner Kevin McWatters recalls about his wife Karen’s visit with the president at the hospital.

After following tips and scouring footage, investigators found surprisingly clear, albeit still blurry, shots of the two suspects — ultimately revealed to be brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. There was an immediate conflict between Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who wanted to release the photos to the public, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Rick Deslauriers and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who wanted to keep the photos private. The conflict boiled down to Davis wanting the people of Boston to swiftly ID the suspects while Deslauriers and Ortiz feared that releasing the photo would cause the suspects to run. Suddenly there was a leak from inside the investigation and a Boston media outlet revealed that they had the photos and were poised to run them. This forced the investigation to get ahead of the outlet and reveal the photos of the suspects during a press conference. Ed Davis denies leaking the photos.

Davis denies leaking the photos, but the release of the images to the public had exactly the effect that he hoped for: a mutual friend immediately called college student Youssef Eddafali and asked him if one of the suspects looked like their friend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Eddafali, aware of the gravity of accusing a Muslim person of terrorist action, waved the accusation away because he could not imagine his longtime friend Dzhokhar bombing the marathon.

Danny Meng immigrated to the United States from China in 2009 to pursue a master’s degree. He was out driving on the night of April 18, 2013, enjoying his beloved new Mercedes. That’s when he was the victim of a carjacking by the Tsarnaev brothers. Tamerlan bragged about being the Boston Marathon bomber and  Meng deduced that the brothers were likely heading to New York to cause more chaos. Meng also knew that they’d have to get more gas before getting on the interstate. When they pulled into a Shell station to refill, Meng saw his moment: he bolted out of the Mercedes and ran to a neighboring gas station where he was able to call 911. Because he was so excited about his first car, he had the GPS number memorized. This enabled the police to track the brothers to a suburban street in Watertown. If Meng hadn’t risked his life by running, and if he hadn’t had that GPS number memorized, it’s likely that the Tsarnaev brothers could have fled Boston.

Somehow the fact that Tamerlan Tsarnaev flat-out told Danny Meng that he was the Boston Marathon bomber was dropped by the time Officer John MacLellan and Waterford police officers responded to Meng’s 911 call. They thought they were dealing with a routine carjacking… and then the carjackers started firing with the handgun they’d stolen from Officer Sean Collier, the cop the brothers assassinated on MIT’s campus.

Not only were the brothers firing upon the increasing police presence, but they were also chucking bombs at them. They even threw another pressure cooker bomb at the police, but the lid came partially undone while being thrown so the pressure lessened and the detonation wasn’t as powerful as it could have been.

This being the suburbs, 911 was flooded with calls about gunfire and explosions. Residents kept coming out to see the commotion, including one guy who, according to Officer MacLellan, came out to cops three times and asked, “You need any help? You need any help?” MacLellan’s response: “Get back in the house — unless you have any 40 cal ammo, get back in there.”

The police ultimately shot 210 rounds at the brothers, with a dozen or so of the bullets actually hitting — but not stopping — Tamerlan and Dzhokhar. The other 190-ish bullets had to go somewhere, and that included into residential homes. One bullet hole was found inches away from a baby. Fortunately, no civilians were harmed during the shootout.

Tamerlan was only captured after his gun ran out of ammunition and he charged the police. He was pinned down on the ground and handcuffed when Dzhokhar hopped into a getaway vehicle and sped off — running over his own brother, dragging him roughly 20 feet down the street. Tamerlan somehow survived this, but later died at the hospital.

This is a dangling thread in the story, but there’s speculation that Tamerlan was involved with the murder of three men on September 11, 2011. That includes Tamerlan’s best friend, a mixed martial artist from Waltham named Brendan Mess. Tamerlan’s coach at the time recalls Tamerlan having a matter-of-fact, cold demeanor about Mess’s death the following day, essentially saying that that’s what his best friend deserved for dealing drugs.

Years later, a few weeks after the bombing, Tamerlan’s death, and Dzhokhar’s arrest, the FBI was interviewing Ibragim Todashev in Orlando. He apparently confessed to orchestrating the murders with Tamerlan, but the officers then said that Todashev rushed them and was then shot dead. People who knew Todashev say that that doesn’t sound like him.

Mess was killed in his apartment and there was no sign of forced entry, which police believe indicates that Mess had to have let the killer in. Some speculate that Mess let Tamerlan into his apartment and Tamerlan killed Mess, nearly decapitating him. Why? Tamerlan’s coach believes it’s because Tamerlan was jealous of Mess, since the murder happened after Tamerlan’s Olympic boxing dreams were dashed when a rule change stipulated that U.S. team members have to be citizens.

The murder of Brendan Mess remains open.

After 18 hours of searching, which included a city-wide shelter-in-place order, Dzhokhar was found one block away hiding out in a boat underneath a tarp. The owner noticed someone bleeding and hiding in their boat and called 911. This turned into another shootout, albeit a one-sided one, where the cops fired 126 rounds into the boat — and Dzhokhar survived.

It was initially assumed that Tamerlan was radicalized during a trip to his home country of Dagestan in the summer of 2012, following the murder of Brendan Mess. Upon further investigation, the group that he connected with — the Union of the Just — mostly just hung out at the beach. It’s believed that Tamerlan’s radicalization came after he returned to America.

During the trial, Dzhokhar’s legal team tried to say that he was radicalized by his brother and didn’t know what he was doing. In turn, it was revealed that there is footage of Dzhokhar, seemingly remorseless, shopping at Whole Foods mere hours after the bombing. And then after murdering Officer Collier and kidnapping Danny Meng, footage was shown of Dzhokhar casually shopping for snacks in the Shell gas station. This helped prove that Dzhokhar was not acting under duress.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death in 2015, but that sentencing was overturned on appeal in 2020. However, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2022, putting Tsarnaev back on death row.