BLABBERMOUTH.NET
More photos have been posted online of
Alexi Laiho's final resting place. The
CHILDREN OF BODOM frontman's ashes were buried earlier this month — nearly a year after his tragic passing at the age of 41. He was laid to rest at the Malmi Cemetery, a large cemetery located in the Malmi district in Helsinki, Finland.
Australian-born music publicist
Kelli Wright, who says she married the musician three years before his death, announced
Alexi's burial in a social media post last Friday (December 10). She wrote: "Finally, with extremely mixed emotions, I can announce MY late, unconditionally and forever loved husband's ashes were buried yesterday on our 4 th Wedding Anniversary. The family
Laiho plot is where he was buried.
Alexi and
Kelli 2005 – eternity".
A large gravestone has been ordered for
Alexi's final resting place, but it has not yet been installed. Social media posts of
Alexi's grave show a candle sitting on top of his burial spot.
At the time of his death,
Alexi was still legally married to his former
SINERGY bandmate
Kimberly Goss. In January 2021, Finnish tabloid
Ilta-Sanomat reported that
Laiho tied the knot with
Goss in February 2002, and the couple never officially divorced. Although
Laiho filed for divorce in November 2002, he quickly withdrew the petition and never filed another.
According to Finnish law,
Laiho and
Wright would not have been able to legally wed, as
Laiho and
Goss had never terminated their marriage.
This past March,
Alexi's sister
Anna accused
Kimberly of holding up the burial process, writing in a social media post that
Goss was using "her legal rights as a widow, preventing grie[v]ing mother and father [from] bury[ing] their own son. Her selfish and narcissistic explanation is that she wanted to take part in the funeral and still wants to be present when the ashes are buried," she wrote. "But our family does not want this monster anywhere near us."
For her part,
Goss, who lives in Chicago, Illinois, denied allegations that was "a 'gold-digger' who
Alexi 'hated'," explaining that "this can be easily disproven through the beautiful text and video messages he sent me daily, right until the last day of his life. Messages so sweet, yet so heartbreaking at the same time. Heartbreaking because you can see how ill he was. I tried everything I could to help him. I often messaged people in Helsinki to check in on him because I was so worried."
This week,
Anna told
Ilta-Sanomat that "the protracted dispute" over her brother's ashes was "over" and that she and the rest of her family welcomed the opportunity to focus on grieving her brother "in a new way."
Alexi died on December 29, 2020 in his home in Helsinki, Finland. He died of alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue. Furthermore,
Laiho had a cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication in his system. He had suffered from long-term health issues leading up to his death.
Alexi and drummer
Jaska Raatikainen founded
CHILDREN OF BODOM in 1993, and the band was one of the most internationally acclaimed metal acts in Finland up until their very last farewell concert in December of 2019. Last year,
Alexi put together
BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT, which recorded three songs and shot one music video, all of which were released posthumously.
Besides
CHILDREN OF BODOM,
Laiho had played in such acts as
WARMEN,
SINERGY,
KYLÄHULLUT and
THE LOCAL BAND. Awarded with a
Metal Hammer Golden God and several other international prizes, the guitarist was also the main star, leading a group of one hundred guitar players at the
Helsinki Festival in 2015 in "100 Guitars From Hel" — a massive concert piece he composed.
At Malmi graveyard today. It was quiet and peaceful. Grave itself is under a mighty tree, in a very beautiful place....
Posted by Marian Elsinghorst on Saturday, December 11, 2021
Alexi laiho forever ❤️
Posted by Bikalp Rai on Sunday, December 12, 2021