2016-11-18

SAN ANTONIO, March 27 (AP) - The remains of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair have been buried at a secret central Texas site, the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.

The Friday burial of O'Hair's remains, along with those of her son and granddaughter, ended a six-year saga involving the trio's abduction, robbery and killing.

William Murray, O'Hair's estranged son and an evangelical Christian, said he honored his mother's instructions about disposition of her body.

"She was cremated. No one prayed over her," Murray said.

American Atheists, the organization O'Hair founded three decades ago, had denounced Murray as an inappropriate person to bury America's most famous atheist. Murray is a fundamentalist minister.

The 76-year-old O'Hair disappeared in 1995 along with her son Jon Garth Murray, 40, and her 30-year-old granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair. Their dismembered and burned remains were found in January in a mass grave west of San Antonio.

Police were led to the grave by David Waters, O'Hair's former office manager, who has admitted kidnapping and killing the three to obtain $600,000 in gold coins owned by O'Hair.

Waters pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea bargain and was scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Austin. Prosecutors want Waters to be sentenced to life in prison.

A second man convicted in connection with the kidnapping, Gary P. Karr, is serving a life term.

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