The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was entombed in an unknown gravesite Thursday after police said an anonymous person stepped forward to help arrange the secret burial.
The burial ended a weeklong search for a place willing to take Tsarnaev's body out of Worcester, Mass., where his remains had been stored at a funeral home amid protests. In that time, the cities where Tsarnaev lived and died and his mother's country all refused the remains.
Amid the frustration, Worcester's police chief urged an end to the quandary. "We are not barbarians," he said. "We bury the dead."
By Thursday, police announced: "As a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
Police in Worcester, about 50 miles west of Boston, didn't say where the body was taken, only that it was no longer in the city.
The director of Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, Peter Stefan, also refused to say where the body was buried or to speak to media gathered outside the funeral home.
Tsarnaev's burial place is expected to become known with the release of his death certificate.
The mother of the brothers, ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who lived in Massachusetts, said officials in Russia, where she lives, also wouldn't accept the body.
On Thursday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick called the weeklong drama to find a burial site a circus, but said he doesn't know where the site is. Patrick said he hopes attention can now return to caring for the victims of the bombing.