Protesters gathered across the street from the Worcester funeral home where the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is being kept. 
 
 WORCESTER — An independent autopsy on the body of Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was scheduled to be performed Sunday, a step requested by Tsarnaev’s parents, who believe their sons were framed by the US government. Preposterous as it may sound to Bostonians, that view is catching fire on the ground with some in Russia. 
 
 The Tsarnaevs say the autopsy results could undermine the US officials’ account of Tamerlan’s death by showing that he was not run over by his brother, Dzhokhar. That, the parents believe, would throw into question law enforcement officials’ entire account of the case. 
 
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 In a telephone interview last week, the suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, dismissed the charges that his sons plotted to set off the bombs as “a complete fabrication.” His contention is picking up popular support in Russia, particularly in the semiautonomous region of Chechnya and other restive territories in southern Russia, where the Tsarnaevs have relatives and roots. 
 
 Posters with Dzhokhar’s picture have appeared on walls in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and a fund-raising drive for the family has sprung up. Many members of the Russian-language social media site VKontakte have replaced their profile pictures with a photo of Dzhokhar with the words, “Totally Innocent.” 
 
 Thousands of miles away, Boston and US law enforcement officials have no doubt that the Tsarnaev brothers are responsible for the Marathon attacks, which killed three people and injured more than 260. What remains uncertain is where the final resting place of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body will be. 
 
 On Saturday, the body lay in a cooler in the basement of a funeral parlor in Worcester. The Tsarnaev family wants Tamerlan to be interred in the Boston area. Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnum & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, vowed to secure a plot quickly. 
 
 “This ends Monday,” Stefan said. “We will find a cemetery by the end of the day Monday.” 
 
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 Stefan said he was determined to give Tsarnaev a proper Muslim burial in a cemetery with what he referred to as a designated Muslim section. The Gardens at Gethsemane in West Roxbury and Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton have said no so far, he said. Neither cemetery had a comment. 
 
 George Milley, president of Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, said the Tsarnaevs should consider alternatives, such as cremation or shipping the body back to Russia. 
 
 “I think this family has distressed enough people,” Milley said. 
 
 Stefan’s funeral home, a stately white Victorian on Main Street, became the center of a bizarre scene over the weekend as protesters waved signs, police arrived to stand guard, and traffic slowed to a crawl for a half-mile in each direction. 
 
 Stefan, 66, held court in his second-floor office, fielding calls from international media while neighbors stopped by with muffins and doughnuts. 
 
 “If they had asked me to bury Adolf Hitler, I would have buried him,” Stefan said. “It’s what we do.” 
 
 Russians who believe American law enforcement officials are lying cite a 30-second section of grainy video that has gone viral. The voices are unclear, and the origin of the clip is not apparent. In it, two voices seem to be saying, “We give up” and “We didn’t do anything,” followed by repeated gunshots. The Tsarnaev family argues that the video depicts Dzhokhar and Tamerlan trying to surrender to police. 
 
 Yuri M. Zhukov, a fellow with the National Security Studies Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, said “innocence campaigns” after the detention of young men accused of rebel activity are common in the North Caucasus, along Russia’s southern rim. The region has seen two devastating civil wars in Chechnya, where Moscow has sought to quell an Islamic insurgency. 
 
 “Counterinsurgency and policing practices there have traditionally been quite indiscriminate, with most evidence and intelligence collected through coercive interrogations,” he said in an e-mail. “The local population is inherently skeptical of charges leveled against suspected terrorists, in part because, in the North Caucasus, the evidence used in such cases is often not reliable.” 
 
 The quick apprehension of the Tsarnaev brothers, he said, has added to the perception that they were set up. 
 
 There is also general anti-Americanism in the region because of the unpopularity of the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. For years, Russians have used reports of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay to defend their own practices, Zhukov said. 
 
 Conspiracy theories about US intentions abound in the region, he said, although different political factions ascribe conflicting motives to the Americans. The belief, for example, that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” is more mainstream in Russia and the North Caucasus than in the United States, he said. The “free Dzhokhar” movement follows in the same tradition. 
 
 “It is not clear what Washington gains by setting these boys up, the story goes, but clearly they are up to something,” Zhukov said. 
 
 Stefan, who has been criticized for taking Tsarnaev’s body, has said that it will be washed according to Islamic tradition following the completion of the second autopsy. He said he plans to file a death certificate and burial permit with the city of Boston on Tuesday. 
 
 If no cemetery will take Tsarnaev, Stefan said he will call the FBI, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, and Governor Deval Patrick and urge them to help. 
 
 He also said the City of Cambridge may be obliged to bury Tsarnaev, as a former resident with nowhere else to be buried. The Cambridge mayor and city manager did not respond to requests for comment Saturday, and the cemetery superintendent could not be reached. 
 
 Outside the Worcester funeral home, protesters said Tsarnaev should be cremated or, as Osama Bin Laden was after he was killed in a raid by US Navy SEALs, buried at sea. 
 
 One of the protesters, Darlene Olsen of Leicester, carried a sign that said, “Bury the Garbage in the Landfill.” 
 
 “He just doesn’t belong here,” she said. 
 
 “Just burn him and throw him in the sewer,” said a young man who was walking by. 
 
 Stefan said he has not discussed cost with the family, but if relatives cannot afford a burial, he will cover the costs himself. 
 
 He said that at least 10 people had called offering to donate money for the burial. But he said the home is not accepting money, and if any arrives, it will be sent to the One Fund to benefit bombing victims. 
 
 Kheda Saratova, a human rights activist in Russia who has been helping the Tsarnaev brothers’ parents, said the family has considered bringing Tamerlan’s body back to Russia if no one in the United States will bury him. But they would rather not, she said. 
 
 “According to Muslim custom you must do everything possible to bury the body as soon as possible,” Saratova said by telephone from Russia. 
 
 She said the family has been receiving money and support from “all over the world.” 

 A Massachusetts state senator says the federal government should intervene in the quest to find a final resting place for the elder Boston Marathon bomber. 
 
 State Sen. Harriet L. Chandler, D-Worcester, said Uncle Sam needs to alleviate a Wochester funeral home’s onerous burden of having accepted Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s corpse on Friday after it was released by the state medical examiner. 
 
 Peter Stefan, owner of the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors has told The Boston Herald his business has been beset by protesters since accepting the body, and he cannot book any new business until convincing a cemetery to provide a plot for the body. 
 
 “The federal government needs to step in,” said Chandler. “But I’m not sure what they’re going to do or where will they go. Peter Stefan is a very respected and respectable funeral home director in Worcester. He’s a good man. This can’t continue. He’s taking a financial loss as a result of this.” 
 
 Stefan accepted Tsarnaev’s body Friday after it was initially sent to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. 
 
 “We have a body for burial that has caused a lot of controversy and we can’t continue to play this game,” Stefan told The Herald. “Under normal circumstances, the government would say it’s (the funeral parlor’s) responsibility to find a place for burial, but this is not normal circumstances. This is a nightmare. 
 
 "My problem here is trying to find a gravesite,” Stefan added. “A lot of people don't want to do it. They don't want to be involved with this. I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too." 

 The uncle of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a gun battle with police arrived at a funeral home Sunday to arrange for his burial. 
 
 Peter Stefan, funeral director and owner of Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, Mass., sits in one of the facility's rooms Friday, May 3, 2013. Stefan confirmed his funeral home will... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police cars sit across from the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., Friday, May 3, 2013. Owner Peter Stefan confirmed his facility will handle funeral arrangements for Boston... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, smiles after accepting the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, the older of the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ruslan Tsarni, left, uncle of killed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, departs the Graham, Putnam, and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., as funeral director and owner Peter... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Maryland, and three other men met with Worcester funeral home director Peter Stefan. The men who accompanied Tsarni plan to wash and perform Muslim burial rites on the body of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Stefan said. 
 
 Tsarnaev, who had appeared in surveillance photos wearing a black cap and was identified as Suspect No. 1, died days after the April 15 bombing at the marathon finish line, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. 
 
 Stefan said he has received calls from people criticizing him and calling him "un-American" for being willing to handle Tsarnaev's funeral. 
 
 "We take an oath to do this. Can I pick and choose? No. Can I separate the sins from the sinners? No," he said. "We are burying a dead body. That's what we do." 
 
 On Sunday, no protesters were gathered outside the funeral home as there had been Friday and Saturday. But several people who drove by the funeral home yelled out their windows, including one man who shouted, "Throw him off a boat like Osama bin Laden!," a reference to the al-Qaida leader's burial at sea after he was killed by Navy SEALS in a raid on his compound in Pakistan. 
 
 Stefan said he hasn't been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to take the body, but he has received offers to provide a grave and to contribute money toward the funeral expenses from people in other states. Stefan said he plans to ask the city of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, to provide a burial plot, and if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials. 
 
 Stefan said Tsarnaev's uncle told him he is anxious to bury his nephew. 
 
 "They just want to get it over with. They want to get him buried," Stefan said. 
 
 Tsarni has denounced the acts that his nephews _ Tamerlan and younger brother Dzhokhar _ are accused of committing and has said they brought shame to the family and the entire Chechen community. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Both parents returned to Dagestan in southern Russia last year. 
 
 Dzhokhar, 19, is in a prison hospital, facing a potential death sentence if convicted of the terrorism plot. 
 
 Stefan said Tsarnaev's uncle told him he is anxious to bury his nephew. 
 
 "They just want to get it over with. They want to get him buried," Stefan said. 
 
 Tsarni has denounced the acts that his nephews _ Tamerlan and younger brother Dzhokhar _ are accused of committing and has said they brought shame to the family and the entire Chechen community. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Both parents returned to Dagestan in southern Russia last year. 
 
 Dzhokhar, 19, is in a prison hospital, facing a potential death sentence if convicted of the terrorism plot.
– Tamerlan Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni (who you may recall was not his nephew's biggest fan), has arrived at the funeral home currently housing Tsarnaev's body to arrange Muslim burial rites and aid in the search for a cemetery willing to bury it, the AP reports. The task is proving difficult: The funeral home has been beset by protestors, preventing it from accepting any other business, and no cemetery in Massachusetts will accept the body. State Senator Harriet L. Chandler has now called for the federal government to step in, Fox News reports. Meanwhile, the Tsarnaev family is still defending their sons' innocence, claiming the men were framed by the US government and arranging an independent autopsy to help support their case, the Boston Globe reports. The conspiracy theory is apparently gaining a lot of support in Russia, and particularly Chechnya, where members of social media site VKontakte are changing their profile picture to a photo of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the line "totally innocent."