Body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is laid to rest outside Massachusetts, official says
WORCESTER – The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been laid to rest somewhere outside of Massachusetts, according to a funeral home official briefed on the situation. Worcester police said the remains of the 26-year-old have been “entombed.’’
The official said that the remains of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber were removed sometime before midnight Wednesday from the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors where his body has been since last Friday.
The burial location was approved by Ruslan Tsarni, the suspected terrorist’s uncle who has represented the family as he and funeral home director Peter Stefan tried to find a cemetery willing to accept the remains for burial, the official said.
In a statement, Worcester police also confirmed that Tsarnaev has been entombed, but did not disclose the location except to say it was outside of the city of Worcester.
“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,” Worcester police said in a statement this morning. “His body is no longer in the city of Worcester and is now entombed.”
In Washington today, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, who testified before a House panel probing the Boston Marathon bombing, welcomed the news that the remains of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is no longer in Worcester.
“I hope it’s been buried. Because I don’t want to talk about these terrorists anymore,’’ Davis told reporters. “This is something that should be put behind us. I personally would like it if we never had to mention these names again. Ever.”
Since last Friday, at least four cemeteries and the cities of Cambridge and Boston told Stefan they would not accept the remains of the suspected terrorist and a plan to bury him at a state prison earlier this week was rejected by the Patrick administration.
Stefan’s funeral home has been surrounded by media, protesters, and Worcester police, whose chief, Gary J. Gemme, on Wednesday publicly appealed for someone to step forward and end the controversy that cost his department some $30,000 in extra expenses.
‘‘We are not barbarians; we bury the dead,” Gemme said on Thursday.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was fatally injured April 19 in a confrontation with police in Watertown where he was shot multiple times and run over by a car being driven by his brother, Dzhokhar, as the younger man fled police. Dzhokhar Tsarneav was captured hiding in a boat later that day.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow, Katherine Russell, waived her right to decide where the father of her child should be buried and handed off that responsibility to Tsarni, a Maryland resident who completed the Muslim burial rites on his nephew and then worked with Stefan to find the burial location.
(Matt Viser and John R. Ellement of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.)
