Two years later, Tsarnaev burial site in Doswell undisturbed

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Al-Barzakh Islamic Cemetery, Doswell, Va.

DOSWELL, VA (WWBT) - With pain still raw in Boston and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now sentenced to death, there is peace in Doswell, Va., the final resting place for Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan.

Two years after Richmond resident Martha Mullen organized the effort to bury Tsarnaev in Virginia, Caroline County deputies said Friday no one has ever reported vandalism at the gravesite.

Tsarnaev's burial plot lies within Al-Barzakh Islamic Cemetery, with one of the towering roller coasters of King's Dominion Theme Park visible in the distance.

The one-acre cemetery has around 35 plots. Tsarnaev's is unmarked.

Entry is only allowed through a written permit, or a prior phone call.

When she heard of protests at the Massachusetts funeral home holding Tsarnaev's body, Mullen said she needed to end the agonizing tension surrounding where the suspected mastermind would be buried.

Reached at her Richmond home Friday, Mullen said she had no comment concerning the decision to sentence Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death.

But in an interview shortly after Tamerlan's burial in May 2013, Mullen said no matter how atrocious the crime, there exists a duty to treat neighbors with dignity, in life and in death.

"God is the person who judges the soul," Mullen said. "But the body belongs to us, to bury."

Mullen said Friday she wanted to lay low and refrain from discussing the issue at length, after considerable backlash from the public when she was in the spotlight.

"This is what Christians do, we have compassion," Mullen said in her 2013 interview. "And we're supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves."

Even with Tsarnaev's death sentenced handed down by a Boston jury, he is now afforded an automatic appeal. The process is likely to take a decade or longer, as lawyers litigate whether a punishment of life in prison should be considered instead.