Tsarnaev Body Rejected By Cemeteries, Still No Plot For Burial
Weeks after Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body was autopsied (and images leaked to the web), the suspected Boston Marathon bomber’s corpse has been released for burial … a growing challenge, as cemeteries in three states have rejected requests to inter the corpse.
Plans to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body in Cambridge have fallen through. While the accused bomber called the city home, Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said Sunday in a statement that burying Tsarnaev’s body there would prove emotionally trying for the traumatized residents:
“The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment.”
Worcester funeral director Peter Stefan says he will have to ask the state for help in burying Tsarnaev’s body if no cemeteries will relent — as of now, most have said that such an interment would have adverse consequences for the families of others buried on the same grounds.
Sunday, uncle Ruslan Tsarni and three unnamed friends planned to wash, shroud and prepare Tsarnaev’s body in accordance with Muslim tradition. Tsarni — who vocally condemned his nephews following the bombing, has said that their religion commands Tsarnaev’s body be dealt with correctly, and that the task has fallen to him:
“I’m dealing with logistics. A dead person must be buried.”
Tsarni expressed gratitude to his friends for stepping forward to help, and guarded their identities, adding:
“These are my friends who feel for me … as I do understand no one wants to associate their names with such evil events.”
An autopsy on Tsarnaev’s body revealed that the suspect died of multiple gunshot wounds, as well as blunt force trauma to the head. It’s not clear whether the trauma was sustained, and conflicting reports indicate that the deceased suspect was run over in the altercation, either by police or younger brother Dzhokhar as he fled.
