Remains of marathon bombing suspect to be claimed by family

BOSTON -- The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was set to be claimed Thursday.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Terrel Harris said authorities were informed someone would be claiming the 26-year-old's remains Thursday night. He had no more information.

The medical examiner Monday determined Tsarnaev's cause of death, but officials said it won't become public until his remains are released and a death certificate is filed.

Tsarnaev's widow, Katherine Russell, who has been living in North Kingstown, R.I., learned this week the medical examiner was ready to release his body and wanted it released to his side of the family, her attorney Amato DeLuca said days ago.

Tsarnaev's uncle Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland on Tuesday night said the family would take the body.

"Of course, family members will take possession of the body," Tsarni said. "We'll do it. We will do it. A family is a family."

Tsarnaev, who after the marathon bombing had appeared in surveillance photos wearing a black cap and identified as Suspect No. 1, died after a gunfight with authorities who had launched a massive manhunt for him.

The April 15 bombing, near the marathon's finish line, killed three people and injured more than 260. Authorities said Tsarnaev and his younger brother later killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer and carjacked a driver, who escaped.

Authorities said the Tsarnaev brothers during the gunfight with police set off a pressure cooker bomb and tossed grenades before the older brother ran out of ammunition.

Police said they tackled the older brother and began to handcuff him but had to dive out of the way at the last second when the younger brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, drove a stolen car at them. They said the younger brother then ran over his brother's body as he drove away to escape.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured later, wounded and bloody, hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard. He is in a federal prison and faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.

The Tsarnaev brothers' mother insists the allegations against them are lies.