File photo of Boston bombing. PHOTO: REUTERS
Peter Stefan, owner of the funeral home in Worcester, Massachusetts, said he would turn to government officials for help if he cannot find a resting place for Tsarnaev soon.
"Everyone deserves a burial. It doesn't matter who it is," Stefan said in a telephone interview with Reuters on Friday. "I can't pick and choose."
Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are suspected of planting and detonating two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264. Ten people lost limbs.
The bombing was the worst attack on US soil since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Stefan said he had faced criticism for his decision to accept the body of Tsarnaev, and was prepared for protests outside his business, the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors.
Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell, declined to pick up Tsarnaev's body from the Massachusetts Medical Examiner's office, allowing his relatives to claim the remains and arrange for a funeral. His body, released on Thursday, was initially taken to another funeral home.
Stefan said Tsarnaev's family was put in touch with him because he has handled other Muslim funerals and is known in the community.
He declined to identify the graveyard officials he has spoken with thus far, saying he hopes to change their minds.
He compared his efforts on behalf of Tsarnaev to the doctors who treated him and the lawyers preparing to defend the ethnic Chechen's younger brother, Dzhokhar, who was wounded in the April 19 shootout and is being held in a nearby prison facility.
Stefan said he hopes to find a burial site soon.
"This is a situation that has to be dealt with. It has gone on way too long," Stefan said.
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The more nasty little things the Americans get up to the more one realises that Pakistan is not so bad after all. There is no apparent solid evidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev has committed a crime, but a lot which indicates he was set up by the CIA as a patsy.
@G. Din: He's not a muslim. It's a propaganda against Islam and muslims. Islam values human lives more than anything, even killing an animal without a reason is not allowed let alone taking a human live. Those who defy it and call it jihad are nothing but agents of the muslim haters.
Even his wife, whom he forced to convert to Islam, refused to take his body. What a mess! There he lies in cold storage, all alone, abhorred by one and all- an Islamic Hero!