Advertisement

Police: Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body has been buried

FBI released a photo of Tamerlan (R) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev taken shortly before the twin bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon finish line April 15. UPI
FBI released a photo of Tamerlan (R) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev taken shortly before the twin bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon finish line April 15. UPI | License Photo

BOSTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a shootout with police searching for the Boston Marathon bombers, was buried in a Doswell, Va., cemetery, CNN reported Friday.

Tsarnaev's body remained unclaimed in a Worcester, Mass., funeral home after multiple cities refused to accept it, the Boston Herald reported.

Advertisement

Worcester, Mass., Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said Thursday, however, a "courageous and compassionate individual" provided a burial plot. Hazelhurst didn't identify the burial site, but said Tsarnaev's body "is no longer in the city of Worcester and is entombed."

Tsarnaev's burial site was described by CNN as a Muslim cemetery in east-central Virginia.

His mother, in Russia, said she was confused by the contradictory information regarding her son's burial.

"I have no idea what is going on," said Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. "They say he is buried, and then he is not. It's crazy. (I hear it has been) authorized and then it is not done yet. I am really sad, really dead inside."

Ruslan Tsarni, Tsarnaev's uncle, confirmed Thursday his nephew was buried somewhere other than Massachusetts, that he hadn't revealed the location to Tsarnaev's parents and added there was no second autopsy on Tsarnaev's body.

Advertisement

The body remained unclaimed for two weeks after the April 19 shooting, until the funeral home accepted it and worked with Tsarni to find a burial site, CNN said.

Investigators are looking into a number of contacts Tsarnaev might have made in the Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as time he spent with a relative who is a prominent Islamist leader recently arrested by Russian authorities, The New York Times reported Thursday.

One official in Russia told the newspaper he didn't have enough information to speak authoritatively about Tsarnaev's contacts in Dagestan but did conclude Tsarnaev failed in an attempt meant to meet with militants.

The Times said the Russians were investigating Tsarnaev's online activity, including whether he and Canadian-born militant William Plotnikov could have been members of a larger group of Russians who mobilized online under the backing of an organization in Europe.

Investigators also were looking into time Tsarnaev spent in 2012 with a distant cousin, Magomed Kartashov, founder of Union of the Just, which campaigns for Shariah and Islamic unity in Dagestan, Time magazine first reported.

Tsarnaeva confirmed her son is Kartashov's third cousin. The two met in Dagestan, she said, and "became very close."

On May 5, agents from Russia's Federal Security Service questioned Kartashov about the Boston bombings, attorney Patimat Abdullaeva said, adding the agents were interested in whether Kartashov and Tsarnaev discussed Islamic radicalism.

Advertisement

Kartashov, in jail since late April for fighting with police, said the cousins had discussed radicalism but claimed Tsarnaev was trying to lure Kartashov into extremism, his lawyer told Time, which was denied its request to interview the cousin.

"Kartashov tried to talk [Tsarnaev] out of his interest in extremism," Abdullaeva said.

Latest Headlines