Boston: Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Virginia with the help of a faith coalition, his uncle said on Friday. The secret burial this week ended a frustrating search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept at a funeral parlor in Worcester, Massachusetts, as cemeteries in Massachusetts and several other states refused to accept the remains.
Tsarnaev was killed on April 19 in a getaway attempt after a gunbattle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured later and remains in custody.
The Tsarnaevs` uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, took responsibility for arranging the burial after Tamerlan`s wife, Katherine Russell, said she wanted the body released to her in-laws.
Tsarni said Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Doswell, Virginia, near Richmond, though he would not say more about the faith coalition that helped. "The body`s buried. That`s it," he said.
With costs to protect the funeral home mounting, Worcester police earlier appealed for help finding a place to bury Tsarnaev. They announced yesterday that "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."
Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at a hospital in Boston, where he could have been buried under state law, because the city was his place of death. But Boston officials said they wouldn`t take the body because Tsarnaev lived in Cambridge, and Cambridge also refused.
His mother also said Russia refused to allow his body into the country so she could bury him in her native Dagestan, but Russian authorities would not comment on that contention.
PTI
