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| More on Speedbump's funeral benefactor | |||||
| 2013-05-13 | |||||
The secret transport of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body from Worcester to a small community near Richmond, Va., was set in motion by a woman who said she was upset to hear about protests to his burial and wanted to see an end to the weeklong burial saga.
Mullen, a licensed professional counselor who has lived in Richmond for most of her life, said she was sitting in a Starbucks Tuesday when it hit her: She could be the one to end the controversy.
After searching the Web for proper Muslim burial traditions and requirements, she turned her search to any local organizations or cemeteries that might be able to facilitate the burial. Mullen said she then e-mailed Islamic Funeral Services of Virginia, which responded within an hour that it could provide a plot for Tsarnaev at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery, in Doswell, Va.
Throughout Tuesday night and most of the day Wednesday, Stefan, Worcester police, and the Islamic Funeral Services crafted a plan to get the body to Virginia. Tsarnaev's body was removed from the home Thursday night without any public notice. Only after it was buried did Worcester police publicly announce both the removal of the remains and their entombment somewhere outside of Worcester. Since last Friday when Tamerlan Tsarnaev's remains arrived at the funeral home, the cities of Cambridge and Boston and cemeteries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey refused to accept Tsarnaev's remains. "What Tsarnaev did is between him and God. We strongly disagree with his violent actions, but that does not release us from our obligation to return his body to the earth," an Islamic Funeral Services of Virgina official, who did not want to be named, said in a statement. Other than that statement, officials at Islamic Funeral Services and the cemetery referred all questions on the burial to Mullen, who spoke exclusively with the Globe. "It was the right thing to do," Mullen said. "I just hope that now the funeral home and the families involved can start to return to their normal lives."
"I know of no Virginia law enforcement agency that was notified," Lippa said. "No one in county or state government was aware of this." The cemetery where Tsarnaev is buried contains 47 graves, all covered Friday with reddish-brown mulch except for two that appeared newly dug and were unmarked. On one of the new graves lay a vase full of roses at one end and a single red rose at the other end. The other new grave was bare. State police cruisers, county sheriff's cars and black unmarked sedans with their emergency lights concealed cruised back and forth past the cemetery, officers inside them eyeing everything for any sign of trouble as reporters on the ground and those in helicopters high overhead broadcast the gravesite's location to the world. | |||||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 I always thought "love thy enemy" refers to "war between sexes". |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-05-13 16:10 |
| #7 Easy to find. It's the wet one. |
| Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 2013-05-13 15:45 |
#6 Jesus says [to] love our enemies... proper Muslim burial traditions and requirements Where did Jesus say "and respect his barbaric pseudo-religion that would have him slit your throat if he had a chance"? |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-05-13 14:44 |
| #5 Meanwhile, up here in PeeAye, we have a flt 93 memorial that is more or less a mosque, and the family members of the deceased lapped it up... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2013-05-13 13:31 |
| #4 Burial at sea, not a bad idea but I think we should have let Chechnya take him back. |
| Posted by: warthogswife 2013-05-13 12:32 |
| #3 They never read the burg. Burial at sea was an option. Jeeze Louise. Beyond the 12 mile limit. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2013-05-13 02:56 |
| #2 47 is a prime number. Means nothing. Carry on.... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2013-05-13 02:53 |
| #1 National 'Public' Radio... 'America at it's worst'... Boston Globe interview... Sitting in a Starbucks... If I didn't know any better, I'd think this woman's a lefty! |
| Posted by: Raj 2013-05-13 01:27 |