Funeral location kept private to bar parents, relative says

LEVITTOWN, Pa. — Terri Schiavo's ashes will be buried in an undisclosed location near Philadelphia so that her immediate family doesn't show up and turn the burial into a media spectacle, a member of the Schiavo family said yesterday.

"If Mike knew they would come in peace, he would have no problem with it," Scott Schiavo, Michael Schiavo's brother, said at his home in Philadelphia's suburbs.

After an autopsy, Michael Schiavo plans to have his wife's body cremated and her ashes brought to Pennsylvania, where she grew up. Scott Schiavo said the ashes would be buried in a plot left by an aunt and uncle, but the family does not plan to provide the specific location for the burial.

Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, oppose cremation and want her buried in Florida.

A spiritual adviser to the Schindlers, Paul O'Donnell, said they plan to hold a Roman Catholic Mass without her body next week. Asked about perhaps never knowing where his sister might be buried, Bobby Schindler said, "We've already said goodbye. ... He's been doing this kind of stuff for 15 years. What would make him stop now?"

As Scott Schiavo monitored TV news reports, he received a stream of calls yesterday from people denouncing him and his brother. On his answering machine was a lengthy message from a Texas man who, shouting obscenities, called the Schiavo family murderers.

"This isn't over by a long shot. We're going to get our name right," Scott Schiavo said. "The world is going to know who Mike was, they're going to know Mike wasn't a beast. ... We're going to clear his name and point it right back at the Schindlers, to let people know just who Bob Schindler is, what type of person he is."