( CNN ) -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 's Twitter account and VK Russian social networking profile have drawn heavy public scrutiny , but he left another , more hidden social media trail : a deleted Instagram account that sources close to him tell CNN once belonged to the accused Boston bomber . The Instagram account , with the user name `` jmaister1 , '' no longer exists , and friends of Tsarnaev 's say it was deleted only recently . An Instagram spokesman declined to comment on the account or disclose when the account was deleted . CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem says the account could be significant . `` If I were an investigator right now , obviously the platform he deleted matters the most , '' she said . Traces of the jmaister1 account were still visible this week in Google 's Web cache and on other archiving sites . Digital sleuths often use those tools to find glimpses of deleted material . When oversharing online can get you arrested . `` It 's exactly like an archive , '' tech entrepreneur and programmer Sam Altman explained . `` So no matter what changes were made to the page today , on the current server , Google has this sort of imprint from a couple of weeks ago . '' Tsarnaev 's complete account could not be recovered with those tools . Google 's cache stores the pages it indexes for variable lengths of time : sometimes days , sometimes weeks . The digital traces that remain show that Tsarnaev added a `` like '' on several photos referring to Chechnya that were posted by other Instagram users . One shows Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev , a onetime government official who later masterminded terrorist attacks against Russia . Basayev was killed in 2006 . Another pro-Chechnya image that Tsarnaev `` liked '' carries a string of hashtags including # FreeChechenia # Jihad # Jannah # ALLAH # Jesus and # God . An academic Chechnya expert whom CNN consulted said the images illustrated a familiarity with Chechen politics and iconography . Tsarnaev 's Instagram account was n't widely known ; CNN spoke with several friends of his who said they were unaware of its existence . Two of his high-school classmates , however , spoke about the account and said he used it to keep in touch with a close-knit group of school friends . The two classmates say they are shocked by -- and in some cases skeptical of -- the charges being levied at the friend they knew as `` Jahar . '' As one said , `` Jahar was the last person you 'd expect to do this . I 've honestly never heard anybody say anything bad about him . '' Since Tsarnaev 's account was deleted , little of what he wrote and posted remains publicly visible , but Kayyem expects investigators to take a closer look at whatever data they can reconstruct . `` Were there clues embedded in the combination of images that can tell us something about what Dzhokhar was thinking ? '' she asked . `` Some of those pictures are very benign . Some of them standing alone do n't mean anything . '' Instagram makes clear in its terms of service that it will turn its records over to law enforcement officials when it receives a valid subpoena or search warrant . `` Given the volume of real-time content on Instagram , some information may only be stored for a short period of time , '' Instagram says on its site . `` We do not retain data for law enforcement purposes unless we receive a valid preservation request . '' Dead Boston bomb suspect posted video of jihadist , analysis shows .
Accused man had a little - known and now deleted Instagram account . Digital copies still exist of Sergei Tsarnaev 's deleted account . Investigators are likely to look closely at the paper trail . One of Dzhokhar 's friends says he ` ` was the last person you 'd want to do this ''