Local funeral establishments declined to accept Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos’ body for three and a half weeks as his family fought over his remains.
On May 24, Ramos, 18, murdered 19 kids and two professors in a tiny Texas hamlet.
After the massacre, the town’s two funeral homes – Rushing-Estes-Knowles and Hillcrest Memorial – were highly busy with Ramos’ victims’ funerals.
Moreover, they did not want the publicity that would come with receiving the gunman’s body, and they did not want to add to the pain of the victims’ families.
Eventually, over a month after the slaughter, the killer’s body was incinerated in San Antonio, 83 miles distant from Uvalde.
All of their personnel grew up in Uvalde County and went to school in Uvalde County, said Taylor Michelle Massey, managing funeral director at Rushing-Estes-Knowles.
However, in the weeks following the May 24th shootings, they were caring for 17 families through what was likely the most terrible moment of their lives, she expressed.
Under the circumstances, they did not believe it would be acceptable or in the best interests of the family they were caring for to take custody of the person who brought them distress.
Eulalio ‘Lalo’ Diaz Jr, a Uvalde County justice of the peace who also acts as the de facto coroner, told the publication that Ramos’ body was autopsied on May 27 – three days after he was shot and killed by cops during the assault.
Diaz was then left to figure out how to dispose of the body.
Once they arrived, the funeral establishments in town replied that they didn’t want to deal with him, he explained.
Diaz had to hurry to find a mortuary after their rejection to store the body, and eventually struck a deal with a facility in Lockhart, 165 miles away.
He had to keep him for three weeks, Diaz explained.
While the funerals for the victims were taking place, he was still trying to figure out what to do with him. It was a trying moment.
However, Ramos’ family was at odds on what to do.
Before attacking the school, the adolescent shot his maternal grandmother, Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66, in the face. Gonzales recovered and was discharged from the hospital in June.
Despite the protests, Ramos was cremated at Crown Cremation Center on the western outskirts of downtown San Antonio, 85 miles from Uvalde, according to his death certificate.
Diaz claimed that Ramos’ funeral arrangements were handled by Castle Ridge in Crystal City, some 40 miles south of Uvalde.
Diaz told the Chronicle that the Bexar County Medical Examiner has warned him it might take up to a year to complete autopsy results for Ramos and his 21 victims.
