WORCESTER, Mass. (WHDH) — A small group of protesters still lined Main Street in Worcester Sunday night, hours after the uncle of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing had left the funeral parlor.
Controversy in the town is brewing and outrage for many is growing as Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body sits inside a Worcester funeral home.
“I’m left alone to deal with this matter,” said Ruslan Tsarni, Tsarnaev’s uncle.
Tsarni is now the only family member tending to Tsarnaev’s body.
“These are my friends who feel for me and I felt comfortable to bring,” said Tsarni. ”As I do understand no one wants to associate their names with such evil events.”
Tsarni is left wondering where his 26-year-old nephew will be buried.
"Tamerlan Tsarnaev has no other place to be buried. There's no other place who would accept his body,” said Tsarni. “And the reasoning to it would be that he lived in America, he grew up here and the last 10 years he resided here in Cambridge.”
On Sunday, the city of Cambridge all but said no.
The city of Cambridge released a statement in response to funeral fights over Tsarnaev’s potential burial site.
“The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment,” said Cambridge city manager, Bob Healy. “The families of loved ones interred in the Cambridge Cemetery also deserve to have their deceased family members rest in peace.”
“This guy has to be buried and I don’t disagree with Cambridge at all, but give us an option,” said funeral director Peter Stefan.
The funeral director has taken heat for days as he struggles to find anyone willing to take the suspect’s body.
“Somebody has to do something. I’ve done all I can do here and I can do no more,” said Stefan.
It’s a mystery where the body will end up. The funeral director said he will appeal to the governor on Monday if no one steps forward.
Tsarni was in town Sunday for a ritual — they washed the body. Tsarni has had no contact, as of late, with Tsarnaev’s widow, Katherine Russell.
There are no plans for a second autopsy.