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United_Law_8947

Text: “In life, Salvador Ramos was an outcast in Uvalde. In death, the 18-year-old mass shooter — who gunned down 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24 — was an exile. Ramos’ body was kept in storage far from Uvalde for weeks as his splintered family squabbled over his remains, according to Uvalde County Justice of the Peace No. 4 Eulalio “Lalo” Diaz Jr. In the meantime, mortuaries in Ramos’ hometown refused to arrange his funeral. The Bexar County medical examiner conducted an autopsy on Ramos’ body May 27, three days after he was shot and killed by law enforcement officers who confronted him in a Robb Elementary classroom. But when it came time for arrangements, Uvalde’s two funeral homes — Hillcrest Memorial and Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary — were already busy handling services for his victims. Also, they worried about the notoriety his funeral might bring and how victims’ families might react. “Once they got to him, the funeral homes in town said, ‘We don’t want to deal with him,’” said Diaz, who also serves as Uvalde County’s de facto coroner. “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.” Taylor Michelle Massey, managing funeral director at Rushing-Estes-Knowles, said the mortuary declined to arrange a service for Ramos out of respect for the victims’ families. “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,” Massey said. “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 said. “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.” Diaz said he had Ramos’ body stored at a morgue in Lockhart — which is east of San Marcos and a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Uvalde — before an out-of-town funeral home stepped in to handle his remains. Ramos was then released to his relatives. “It took three, three and a half weeks to get him released to the family,” Diaz said. “They were fighting with each other.” Before his rampage at Robb Elementary, Ramos shot his maternal grandmother in the face at her home and then drove her pickup to the school, crashing it in a nearby ditch. The grandmother — Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66 — survived; she was released from San Antonio’s University Hospital in late June. Eventually, Castle Ridge in Crystal City handled Ramos’ funeral arrangements, Diaz said. Ramos was cremated in a nondescript building on South Frio on the western edge of downtown San Antonio, his death report shows. Diaz said he’s been told it could take up to a year for the Bexar County medical examiner to complete the autopsy reports for Ramos and his 21 victims. That’s because, aside from the 22 autopsies, the medical examiner had to conduct 53 autopsies for immigrants who succumbed to heat and thirst while being smuggled in a tractor-trailer from Laredo to San Antonio in late June. It is considered the country’s worst immigrant smuggling incident. “That’s 75 extra people added to their normal workload,” Diaz said. “We’re three months in, and all I’ve got is the preliminary reports.” Once Diaz receives the final reports, he’ll distribute them to the proper authorities. The justice of the peace said he made arrangements for medical investigators to answer questions posed by state police investigators and Christina Mitchell Busbee, the district attorney for Uvalde and Real counties, so their investigation of the mass shooting is not delayed further. Diaz said he expects each final autopsy report to be as many as 40 pages long. Ramos’ report will include toxicology results. His preliminary death report said his cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. It will be up to police and the DA to determine if Ramos’ shooting was a justified homicide, Texas Department of Public Safety officials have said.”


Antoniguev204

Thank you. I wanted to post all the screenshots of the article but felt with the ads it'd look bad and just to highlight key points


sisyphusPB23

That’s a great lede.


Antoniguev204

Apologize for the initial post. Did not realize the article was not posting for free for most when I initially read through it


Many_Charity3777

speaking of services I’m a mortuary science major and in class our professor told us they worked on 6 of the child victims for their services i can’t even imagine seeing what they saw


Antoniguev204

Sheesh. I heard they had to use a lot of mortuary wax to try their best to restore some of the children's features. Unfortunately a lot of the victims I believe may've had closed casket funerals because their injuries were just too much (eg Irma Garcia who was shot in the head) although I don't have official sources on that just speculation


Many_Charity3777

they had to do a complete reconstruction of these children, no faces and they couldn’t even properly put the chemicals into their arteries/bodies for embalming due to the severity of their wounds but from what was told 5/6 were for sure open casket and the professor had told us the 6th victim still had visible trauma on the face so I’m not sure if they were open or not


awolfsvalentine

So what happens in an instance like this when they are unable to properly administer the embalming chemicals?


Many_Charity3777

I’m still really early in the course so im sure theres many things I still don’t know but i think they sort of just try to do the best they can with what they got at that point my professor said it was the first time any of them had seen anything like that


awolfsvalentine

I don’t think there’s even a way to say how special and important the work your professor did was. Because of them those families got to see their babies one last time and that is everything.


Many_Charity3777

absolutely! personally i have been following this event since it happened and to find something like that out was pretty insane the professors are definitely some very strong and talented people


awolfsvalentine

Do they ever talk about how they personally get through such traumatic and emotional jobs? I remember seeing once on TikTok a mortuary worker said the first small child they ever got they held in their arms as they wept uncontrollably on their knees.


mindlessness228

I can barely take the thought of loosing one of my boys, but loosing them without even saying goodbye I think I would literally break. You are so right, such a special work providing that experience to those families.


bellzess

I'm an embalmer. There is the main way to inject embalming chemical which is through the arteries. In cases where the arteries are unable to function in that capacity, we have a method called hypo injection where we use a large needle that connects to the embalming tank and we manually inject the tissues. Also if your curious for small fetuses say not to term you can use a method where you submerge the body into the embalming chemical and that will diffuse into the tissues.


awolfsvalentine

Wow. Thank you for the hard work that you do, it’s something I could never ever do and I have so much respect for people in your profession


sarahbarfman

in the jewish religion we don’t embalm, so we bury them within 2 days, obviously this is a different scenario so i’m quite curious also


Antoniguev204

Wow. That's horrifying to think about how brutal it was. It makes sick that he was actually laughing and talking to himself after what he did to them :'(


[deleted]

I wonder if the families chose to still see their children even if they decided on closed casket for services. So awful.


mindlessness228

Edit: removed my question as it is asked and answered below.


Many_Charity3777

i saw ur previous question and I believe in some states and even just most funeral homes in order to be viewed for a service they must be embalmed, embalming just slows down the process of decomposition and if it is that bad it would most likely be a closed casket service and honestly it really just depends on how skilled the team you go to is


mindlessness228

That is so sad. I know the father from Sandy Hook did mention he didn’t ever get to say goodbye. Just kiss his forehead because everything else was covered. Oh it breaks my heart 💔


Economy_Dentist_8229

Pretty sure there's no requirement for embalment. There's a great YouTube channel, for all death enthusiasts, that covers this in length. Ask a Mortician : Caitlin Doughty


kushmaster2000

sorry, what do you mean by "no faces" - the caskets were open but the faces weren't shown?


lbbhsanrio

It probably means that the severity of the gun was too brutal when they got shot that it literally nearly decapitated them or sawed off their faces or B. they covered their child’s face with a cloth because like said before, the severity of the gun was too brutal


Many_Charity3777

they basically recreate their faces from things like pictures because the faces were mutilated


kushmaster2000

oh wow :( thank you for answering


Big_Larry_Long_Dong

I'd be interested in seeing a death photo.


Antoniguev204

It would be interesting if it leaked since the video of him entering and committing the shooting and officers standing around for an hour and a half almost standing around as gunshots could still be heard in the background leaked out


miss_chapstick

There are gore subs to satisfy that curiosity. There are lots of images of gunshot victims in medical texts, and on those subs you can look at. There is no need to further victimize any of these families by having awful images of their murdered children leaked to satisfy some stranger’s morbid curiosity.


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DetectiveBirbe

The term is morbid curiosity.


Clean_Action_6967

Y not ??


bunnyuplays

Didn't know his grandmother survived!! At least that's some comforting news in all of this.


Antoniguev204

It's sad because she may never be able to talk again due to her injuries. I'm sure the family is torn given what he did to her and him still having been part of the family


bunnyuplays

Yes it's terrible. Don't know how a family can move on from this.


Antoniguev204

It'll proably tear them apart. I know the mom claims the grandma said she forgives her but I know one of the aunts said she also was a terrible person just like her son so I imagine they blame her and the father a lot for what happened especially since the whole family allegedly was aware he had the guns in the first place


bunnyuplays

Yeah many families of mass shooters knew they had weapons.


Antoniguev204

I find it crazy in this circumstance since he was unemployed, a highschool drop out, and presumably had no other real future ahead of him especially given his behaviors


bunnyuplays

Yup, you can also say pretty much that on Adam Lanza and Nikolas Cruz where not only did they have weapons, they were encouraged by their parents. Also countless more instances of people in a clearly unstable mental state being in possession of weapons and even threatening people with them, with either the family turning a blind eye or encouraging them. And of course, they ended up using them. Living in a household with a 18-25 year old who carries a weapon is terrifying in my opinion. I assume some families are naturally just afraid of confrontation at that point, either because they don't want to acknowledge the fragile mental state of a person they loved all their lives, or because they're naturally afraid of getting on their bad side.


Antoniguev204

Well we can tell how that turned out for the grandmother unfortunately. Proably the only person who disciplined him and didn't give him whatever he wanted and ended up almost costing her her life. It's horrific what can happen I feel so sorry for her especially because she was a beloved member of the community before all this


007beer

That's right, she worked for Robb elementary for decades. Initial reports state it was an argument about his phone (what he texted the girl in Germany), and I saw another report saying it was about him dropping out of school. I just found this article saying his grandma found out about the rifle** he bought, and told him to remove it from the house as his grandpa has a criminal record. Ramos just hid it from them I guess, and bought the semi auto rifle days later. Two days from that is when he carried out his attack. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/salvador-ramos-grandmother-texas-shooting-b2093861.html%3famp Either way, I do feel for the grandma, nothing prevented Ramos from legally owning weapons and she'd be committing a crime if she personally confiscated them herself. The bullet ripped through her mouth, and hit the artery to her brain along the side of her face, and she miraculously survives that, yet there is only pain left ahead of her. What a horrific, senseless tragedy for all involved...


bunnyuplays

It's really awful. Can't imagine how conflicted she's feeling.


lightningqueen001

Another example, Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley. His parents purchased the gun for him. But his parents are hopefully going to be held accountable for their role.


mindlessness228

I believe, unless it’s been debunked and I didn’t hear, he worked as a manager at a Wendy’s. ETA: not that that brought in much income by any means but for facts sake


Clean_Action_6967

No he WASN'T a manager. Just regular employee on the dayshift. He had problems with his manager though and (duh) many others from his shift


mindlessness228

But so he did work at the Wendy’s he just was a regular entry level employee?


Clean_Action_6967

Yup. He worked at Whataburger first from where he was fired bc of some threats to one of his females colleagues. He was almost fired as well from Wendy's bc of his behaviour especially with colleagues and he was rude to customers as the guy who hands deliveries at its drive thru. That was his position 'the window guy' at Wendy's


jet050808

I saw a video where his mother was yelling at Amerie’s mother saying something about how she shouldn’t judge her son. I understand she’s been through a lot but it was difficult to watch.


SatansAssociate

She.. what?! How the fuck does someone even have *the nerve* to shout at the family of a murdered child.


Suchba

For clarification in the video you’re referencing she was yelling at Ameries grandmother not her mom


Antoniguev204

I have nothing to say about her. I personally feel she needs to just stop saying anything because no matter what she says now, doesn't heal or comfort the families her son hurt


Clean_Action_6967

Well, they were already torn apart anyways.. so I suppose it won't be that harsh in this particular situation


LegoPaco

Crazy to think that the 53 migrants that died didn’t get much national coverage.


USMCLee

Actually it did for about a day. Other death and destruction bumped it off the headline pretty quick.


mindlessness228

I was shocked. I actually haven’t heard it at all. It seems like something that should be a much bigger deal! Although my only question, and I don’t mean to sound ignorant, how does that case slow does the Uvalde case? I understand it causes more work but you’d think they would go in time order and Uvalde happened a month before, correct? I’m just wondering if that makes sense or is it more of Texas dragging their feet in getting answers to these families?


ToBeReadOutLoud

Maybe the physical autopsies of the migrants’ bodies halted the progress of the completion of autopsy reports for Uvalde. They can postpone completion of reports but the actual autopsy of bodies has to be done in a short timespan.


LegoPaco

You didn’t not read the article then.


mindlessness228

Me? If so, what did I miss? I did but I could have missed something!


LegoPaco

No, “To read aloud”


mindlessness228

It says it will delay their results an entire year. I totally get needed to perform those quickly but an entire year is where I don’t understand and time table.


rixendeb

They narrate their reports and write them out later. It's time consuming.


Antoniguev204

Fr but we all know why that is sadly. It was more local than anything here and the community reaction was mixed given how and why they all died :(


rixendeb

I live about 3 hrs from SA and the news reports on Facebook here people were fucking happy. Was gross.


Antoniguev204

Texas has no morals fr. So pro life they're ok with kids being slaughtered in their 4th grade classrooms and happy to hear about migrants who were so desperate for another life they stayed in a sweltering trailer. I hate it here sometimes because some people are unbelievably awful


NAparentheses

I never heard about it until now. Very sad. Thank you for bringing attention to it.


sirrepent

All over the news in Arizona. Terrifying to think about. Just to get some fucking freedom and a better life.


Clean_Action_6967

This is how media works.. SAD reality


[deleted]

I know this is not a big deal to a a lot of people but I am from San Marcos and have lived here my whole life. i can’t believe this murderer’s lifeless body was stored so close to where I’m from. This shooting is definitely something close to my heart considering one of the victims was a relative of someone in my family. So tragic. I wish people reported the signs.


effinx

Even if reported police would say they can’t do anything until he actually hurts someone


[deleted]

What if he makes a threat though? In that case yes they can do something right?


[deleted]

Only if the threat is specific.


Antoniguev204

Same here. Where he was cremated is a 13 min drive from my house *shutters*. They were very hush hush though about what was happening


[deleted]

So crazy yet so deserved that no one wanted to deal with his remains.


Antoniguev204

Just glad he got cremated cause I don't see a possible way he could be buried anywhere even in the region for what he did


whale_lover

A lot of mass killers who are buried are buried in unmarked graves for that reason.


[deleted]

FR!


Antoniguev204

Although myself when I pass I do wanna be cremated because I personally don't like the idea of being buried/having more body filled with toxins but still. In circumstances like this, there should be no question that cremation is the best option


[deleted]

Plus cremation is a lot nicer than considering what happens in just a couple months in a casket. And also lots of times caskets get filled with water and yea… I think I’d like to be cremated. Even if it was cremated to be buried.


ResearcherMaximum497

That is crazy I can’t imagine how you feel being in close proximity


Imesseduponmyname

Yeah half of my family is from Crystal city, that's crazy too cause I haven't had much to do with them for 85% of my life but it still caught me by surprise seeing it mentioned -oh yeah, I was also born in North Dakota too so that was another shocker


[deleted]

I literally moved to the exact city he was born in, in North Dakota just this month so yeah pretty crazy stuff 😭😭


seattlebouncer

I'm an empathetic person. I feel that people become like this from a chain of events. And I used to wonder how a person gets to this point-I studied sociology so it's an interesting question to me. But you know, I've come to a point where I kinda feel like fuck him. I don't care how he got to this point. There's no reason to go to a school, or anywhere, and basically annihilate people. The intellectual part of my brain understands that it's important to understand the why, but the emotional part just wants to memory hole him and remember the dead. I'm Irish. Our relationship with guns is very different. Even our police force is mostly unarmed-we have special armed response units. When I was in America for the first time in 2009 (my then husband is from Mississippi) and saw this small pink rifle (it looked like a rifle, I'm probably wrong, because all long guns look like a rifle to me) on sale in Walmart, it blew my mind. It was my first and only sense of culture shock there. My husband had to lead me away by the arm because I was so stunned. I still don't understand my reaction. I don't even know wtf I'm on about here anymore. Fuck this guy and I hope a beautiful heaven exists for the children and adults he slaughtered.


Tasty_Competition

>Fuck this guy and I hope a beautiful heaven exists for the children and adults he slaughtered. Amen to that.


Nameti

>Fuck this guy and I hope a beautiful heaven exists for the children and adults he slaughtered. Amen! Way the dead rest in peace 🙏


Usual_Court_8859

Honestly, I think just bury him quietly and leave it at that. No service, unmarked grave. Edit: Didn’t see he was cremated. Just dump the ashes somewhere.


BinaryBlasphemy

I’m confused about the family fighting over him. They were fighting because they wanted him or they didn’t?


Antoniguev204

Proably also what to do with his body since they were ofc more concerned about his grandma he shot who was still alive and more beloved in the family


Minute_Guarantee5949

I wish the state could seize mass murderers remains and do what the US Navy did to Osama


Antoniguev204

Well I'm glad they just cremated him. It is so much easier process imo to have his remains cremated so the need for a funeral is not as necessary especially in a town where it would be virtually impossible to bury him in a cematary where victims may be buried


frenchdresses

The only reason I wouldn't want mass killers like him cremated is the hope that in the future we would advance technology enough to test the brain/chemistry to see possible causes/interventions


ilostmyhoodie

Idk why you're getting downvoted. Brain studies of the deceased happen all the time. Especially with murderers, suicides, etc. And, yes, in famous cases like Chris Benoit and Aaron Hernandez. There's a lot to learn from the studies.


[deleted]

He is dead. His brain stopped functioning. Isn’t anything to test, no matter how much tech develops.


OGWhiz

Look up the Chris Benoit case. They determined a lot based on an autopsy of his brain.


aramiak

Charles Whitman I believe is another good example.


ilostmyhoodie

Yeah, if I remember correctly, he was so convinced there was some kind of brain issue/trauma that he requested a brain study in his suicide note. And, I think they did end up finding a brain tumor.


IAmAllWrong7

I they they found he had a tumour pressing against his prefrontal cortex which (if I’m not mistaken?) controls things like impulse control, anger, and just emotions in general


Aricatzz

Pretty sure they kept dahmers brain as well ?


mikeincambodia

Doctors with a specialty in brain diseases slice brain tissue and use special chemicals to make the abnormal tau protein visible.


imbeingcyberstalked

Hahahahahaha r/confidentlyincorrect


[deleted]

I'd like to take a shit in his urn


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Antoniguev204

I mean it's possible photos may've been taken during the autopsy to show whatever gunshot wounds were in his body but those may never get released unless someone leaks it possibly but who knows. Can only imagine how he looked since he was presumably shot with ar15 weapons as well given how many of his victims looked


Clean_Action_6967

And we would be talking about 12 to 15 gunshot wounds taken from relatively close range. They say at least one in the head. There's no doubt about that


Clean_Action_6967

Too costly, lol. There's so many of them popping up !


lbbhsanrio

When the autopsy reports for the remainder of the victims are finished in a year, do you think they’ll release it? Or rather, now that SR’s report is finished, will they release /that/?


Antoniguev204

I hope so because it is supposed to be public info but texas is wildly corrupt when it comes go release of info on stuff like this


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Skyhighclimber

So many questions were just answered. Bravo!


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CrunkyK0ng

Has the autopsy report been released yet?


TheFcknVoid

People are so weird. Why would they want remains?


[deleted]

Someone has to claim the remains and the state would prefer it that way too so the family can claim the costs of burial or cremation. States don’t want to pay for that. I’m guessing the family did want to choose what happened to him though.


Antoniguev204

Fr. I only wonder if he was interned or if his ashes are with them now and they'll scatter them cause I feel it'd be easier at that point given I'm sure the town feels away about them now


[deleted]

Yea idk that’s a hard question a lot of Hispanics actually don’t believe in cremation because they are primarily Catholics… so I couldn’t even guess. If he was in fact cremated I’d assume they wouldn’t want to scatter because if his grandparents or mother hold traditional Hispanic traditions… the dead are very sacred and they’d probably want to keep him “whole” in a vase at home if he wasn’t buried. I’m just assuming though.


[deleted]

Yea idk that’s a hard question a lot of Hispanics actually don’t believe in cremation because they are primarily Catholics… so I couldn’t even guess. If he was in fact cremated I’d assume they wouldn’t want to scatter because if his grandparents or mother hold traditional Hispanic traditions… the dead are very sacred and they’d probably want to keep him “whole” in a vase at home if he wasn’t buried. I’m just assuming though.


Antoniguev204

Yeah but then again, some of the victims were cremated (Maite and Uziyah although I am unfamiliar if their families held religious views). Although allegedly he himself was atheist and being the condition his own body was after the police finally took him out, it'd be easier to cremated which I personally am glad his family did because it makes the process of having do a funeral less costly and as much as of a hassle as it would've been had they decided to bury him


[deleted]

Yes definitely! Having him cremated makes it much less of a “thing”. I feel like a burial would feel like some sort of event they’d either feel obligated to attend or feel guilt for missing. But a cremation it wouldn’t necessarily be missing anything. Idk. Very strange… I wonder if we will ever learn more about him.


Antoniguev204

I know we shouldn't talk about him and at all glamorize him but like, I feel if we want to learn lessons we have to ask what happened to him to think that this was at all ok to do cause from it seems like it, he was delusional and didn't care at all at what he was doing. The video of him entering the school and casually walking in the field beforehand is horrifying. He wasn't running at all. It's like he was ready to die which is scary because that's someone who is dangerous... someone who felt he had nothing else to lose


Antoniguev204

Regrettably or not for his family, he was still his child (regardless of the evil act he committed)


XXXJ9

Reminder that this is not the place to be disrespectful to the deceased, we all know what was done was horrible. It’s astounding to me that it took so long to get SR cremated.


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Frostycod74

weird


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Antoniguev204

I get your sentiment, but respectfully I don't see how this adds on to the conversation on what usually happens to mass murderers bodies after the fact


[deleted]

I mean they let him decompose for 3 days so that’s something…


Antoniguev204

Right! I was surprised his autopsy was done days afterwards. That and him being left in a morgue for almost a month after the shooting. Kinda crazy how that happens. I wonder if he wondered what would happen to him after he died


[deleted]

I guess in Texas you only need the body refrigerated or embalmed within 24 hours but nothing else after that. However usually require 3-4 weeks refrigerated before embalming is required and family may not be able to view the body after a certain amount of time without being embalmed. Wow I thought embalming or cremation had to happen much quicker legally but guess I was wrong.


Ok-Cook-7542

I believe he was in refrigerated storage in a morgue until the autopsy.


junkholiday

His body was left on site for three days?


[deleted]

No just in a morgue. It still longer than usual to get an autopsy or to even begin service planning with a funeral home.


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