(CNN) — The difficult question of where Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body would be laid to rest appears to have been settled.
The remains of the slain Boston Marathon bombings suspect have been entombed thanks to a “courageous and compassionate individual (who) came forward,” police in Worcester, Massachusetts, said Thursday.
Police did not say where the remains were entombed but did say that they are “no longer in the city of Worcester,” where the body had been at a funeral home while a relative and officials tried to determine what to do.
The city’s police chief “thanks the community that provided the burial site,” police said in a written statement.
Tsarnaev’s mother, meanwhile, appeared confused by the announcement. Speaking to CNN from Russia by phone Thursday evening, Zubeidat Tsarnaev said she didn’t know whether her son was buried or where.
“I have no idea what is going on,” she said. “They say he is buried, and then he is not. It’s crazy. (I hear it’s been) authorized, and then it is not done yet.
“I am really sad, really dead inside.”
Tsarnaev’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni confirmed Thursday afternoon that his nephew is buried outside of Massachusetts and that he has not told Tsarnaev’s parents where. He also said that there was no second autopsy: “I did not do that, I did not do anything.”
What would happen to the body of the man who, along with his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was accused of setting off two deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon on April 15 had been a nearly monthlong puzzle.
The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a police pursuit days after the bombings, went unclaimed for nearly two weeks. The funeral home in Worcester — about 40 miles west of downtown Boston — eventually accepted the remains, and Tsarni worked with the funeral home on what to do next.
Tsarni asked several cemeteries, including a Muslim site in Enfield, Connecticut, to take his nephew’s remains. Imam Mohamed Haidara, whose mosque oversees that cemetery, said Tsarnaev’s remains are not in that city. Enfield Town Manager Matt Coppler said Haidara assured him that Tsarnaev is not there.
Picketers in Worcester made it clear they didn’t want the body buried there, with one holding a sign that read, “Bury the garbage in the landfill.” And the city manager of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, said he would not allow Tsarnaev to be buried in the city, asserting that possible protests and media coverage would disrupt the community.
Peter Stefan, owner of the Worcester funeral home, said earlier this week that managers of three cemeteries told him they feared reprisals. It also appeared that sending the body overseas was an unlikely option — Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s parents in the Russian region of Dagestan said they would not fly his body back to Russia for burial, citing passport problems, spokeswoman Heda Saratova said.
Tsarni said he is satisfied that the ordeal is over.
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, Paula Newton and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.
