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| Boston bombing suspect is buried | | | Boston: The body of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried nearly three weeks after he died following a shootout with law enforcement and after a long search for a location that would accept his remains.
According to a statement from police in Worcester, Mass., a city about 45 miles west of Boston where the remains arrived May 3, Mr. Tsarnaev's body "is no longer in the City of Worcester and is now entombed."
The police didn't say where the body was taken or when it was buried, and a spokesman couldn't be reached for comment. An answering service for the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, which held the body for nearly a week, referred calls to the police.
"As a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased," the police statement said.
Mr. Tsarnaev was killed in the early hours of April 19 in a gunfight with police in Watertown, Mass. Muslims generally are buried soon after death, but Mr. Tsarnaev's alleged involvement in the deadly April 15 attack complicated plans for his interment.
His uncle Ruslan Tsarni eventually claimed the body, and the family picked the Worcester location because of its experience handling Muslim funerals, a director at the home, who declined to give his name, said earlier. Such funerals involve steps such as washing the body and wrapping it in a shroud.
The funeral home had a difficult time finding a burial place amid concerns that the gravesite would attract negative attention or protesters, the director said. Muslim cemeteries in the Northeast rebuffed the home's inquiries, and several dozen individual grave offers also fell through, the director said.
"We declined," said Mohamed Haidara, the imam at the Islamic Center of Connecticut, which runs one of the Muslim cemeteries that were contacted. "We don't see why they would bring the remains here. Why not in Boston in Cambridge?"
But finding a burial place locally, near the scene of the marathon explosions, also was challenging. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said this week that, if asked, he would refuse to have the body buried in one of the city's two public cemeteries.
"This guy didn't care about maiming people in our city…so why should I care about this individual?" Mr. Menino said in an interview. "No welcome sign here."
As recently as early Wednesday, Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme expressed frustration his department was spending time and money to keep watch on the funeral home, which attracted protesters and media onlookers.
The police were forced into "the unwanted position of having to assist the family in locating a burial site," the chief said during a televised news conference. He also said that shipping the body to Russia was "not an option with the uncle."
In a statement, the chief acknowledged the funeral home and Mr. Tsarni for their cooperation. But in a statement earlier this week, the police also said they were negotiating with the home about footing the bill for extra police work. Those costs were estimated at $30,000 by the end of the day Monday. |
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