WASHINGTON, May 9 (RIA Novosti) – The emotional debate over what to do with the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been resolved with a private burial, police said Thursday, but they have not disclosed exactly where or under what conditions the burial occurred.
“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,” said the Worcester, Massachusetts Police Department in a press release.
“His body is no longer in the City of Worcester and is now entombed,” it said.
The body was taken out of state shortly before midnight, said Peter Stefan, director of the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlor, where Tsarnaev’s body was taken last week, in comments to RIA Novosti.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout with police on April 19, four days after a pair of explosions near the finish line of the marathon killed three people and injured more than 260 others. He and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, quickly emerged as suspects in the case.
Investigators believe the brothers, ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who were living in Massachusetts, planted two pressure-cooker bombs laden with shrapnel and explosives near the finish line. Dzhokhar was captured hours after his brother’s death, and is being held in a prison hospital.
The medical examiner released Tamerlan’s body on May 1, but the funeral home in Worcester that accepted it quickly became the site of community protests. Police said they spent tens of thousands of dollars for security at the home but cemeteries and communities refused to accept the body for burial.
“The people of Massachusetts have a right to say that they do not want that terrorist to be buried on the soil of Massachusetts,” said US Rep. Edward Markey in comments to the media.
More than 100 offers for burial in graves in the United States and Canada were ultimately rejected because officials in those towns objected, and police pleaded publicly for a solution.
"We are not barbarians," Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme said Wednesday. "We bury the dead."
Stefan told RIA Novosti Tamerlan’s body would be placed in an unmarked grave.
