Uvalde elementary school shooter Salvador Ramos' body went unclaimed for almost a month after local funeral homes refused to accept him, while his family struggled to get his remains, according to a new report. His body remained in the morgue for three-and-a-half weeks before his body was cremated almost a hundred miles away from his home in San Antonio.
Most of the funeral homes refused to accept Ramos' body because they believed that it would add to the trauma the victims' families were already going through after the massacre. Ramos, 18, went on a carnage on May 24, shooting dead 19 children and two teachers in the small Texas town before being gunned down by the police.
Cursed for Ever
The two funeral homes in Uvalde, Rushing-Estes-Knowles and Hillcrest Memorial, were incredibly busy attending to the funerals of Ramos' victims after the shooting at the elementary school. According to a Daily Mail report, the funeral homes refused to accept Ramos' body as they felt that doing so would be like doing injustice to the families of the victims who were already in deep trauma.
Moreover, the funeral homes did not want to subject the relatives of the victims to additional suffering by publicly accepting the gunman's body.
Ramos' body was finally cremated 83 miles away in San Antonio almost a month after the massacre.
"All of our staff grew up in Uvalde County and attended school in Uvalde County and believe that everyone deserves a dignified and respectful funeral service," said Taylor Michelle Massey, managing funeral director at Rushing-Estes-Knowles, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
"However, in the weeks following the shootings of May 24th, we were caring for 17 families through what is probably the most difficult time in their lives," she told The Houston Chronicle.
"Under the circumstance, we did not feel it would be appropriate or in the best interest of the families for which we were caring to take custody of the remains of the individual that caused their pain," Massey added.
No One to Accept
Ramos' remains underwent an autopsy on May 27, three days after he was shot and killed by police during the attack, according to Eulalio "Lalo" Diaz Jr., a Uvalde County justice of the peace who also serves as the de facto coroner.
Diaz then started facing the challenge of finding a way to cremate his body. It was a mammoth task as no funeral home was willing to accept Ramos' body. Their refusal to store the dead meant that Diaz had to rush to find a morgue.
He finally made an agreement with a facility in Lockhart, 165 miles away. I had to store him for three weeks. As the funerals for the victims were going on, I was still dealing with what to do with him. It was a stressful time," Diaz said.
In the meantime, Ramos' family couldn't agree on what to do with his body. Despite the arguments, Ramos was cremated at Crown Cremation Center, 85 miles from Uvalde and on the western border of downtown San Antonio.
Ramos' funeral arrangements were handled by Castle Ridge in Crystal City, 40 miles south of Uvalde, according to Diaz.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner's completion of the autopsy findings for Ramos and his 21 victims might take up to a year, Diaz told the Chronicle.
Ramos shot his 66-year-old maternal grandma Celia Martinez Gonzales in the face before going into a carnage at the elementary school, killing 19 students and two teachers. He was shot dead by police after more than an hour, for which the department drew widespread criticism.
Investigations later revealed that police waited for an hour outside the classroom as they feared that Ramos would shoot them, while he continued with his massacre.
