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| Photo Credit: AP./Deenle News. |
A Pennsylvania man was charged with abuse in his attempt to buy corpse, receiving stolen property and other charges. Police said he allegedly tied to buy human remains from an Arkansas woman for possible resale on Facebook, The Associated Press reports.
Sale of human corpse
A spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock said the human remains were to be donated to UAMS’s facility, according to The Associated Press.
UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor
said in a statement that the corpse were stolen from Arkansas Central Mortuary
Services in Little Rock by a female mortuary employee and sold, adding that
federal authorities are investigating the incident, The Associated Press
reported.
“We are very
respectful of those who donate their bodies, and we are appalled that such a
thing could happen,” Taylor said.
The Arkansas
woman is yet to be charged by authorities as of Thursday.
East
Pennsboro Township Police in Pennsylvania said it had arrested and charged
Jeremy Lee Pauley, 40, of Enola, Pennsylvania on July 22. The suspect had an initial
court appearance Thursday and was released on a $50,000 bond, The Associated
Press cited court records.
The Associated
Press reported that a Facebook page under Pauley’s name posted pictures of bags
and stacks of femurs, one captioned, “Picked up more medical bones to sort
through.”
According to the Associated Press, the Facebook page he uses to market his body parts which also provides a link to his website is called “The Grand Wunderkammer,” “Vendors of the odd and unusual, museum exhibits, guest lectures, live entertainment, and so much more! Strange, curious, and unique in every way possible!”
Is the sale of human body parts legal?
“I think
I’ve seen it all, and then something like this comes around,” said Sean
McCormack, district attorney for Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where Pauley
was charged, according to The Associated Press.
“The
question we had to answer was, Is the sale of body parts or bones and remains
illegal ... or legal? Some of it, to our surprise, was legal. And as the
investigation went on, it became clear there was illegal activity going on as
well.”
Pauley said
the remains he collected were acquired legally when police contacted him
initially, The Associated Press cited a police affidavit. Police initially
found what they described as older human remains including full skeletons that
they determined were legally obtained.
A second tip
about newer remains in Pauley’s home drew investigators to his home where they
found more recent purchases, according to The Associated Press. Police
discovered three five-gallon buckets containing assorted body parts which included
those of children. Federal authorities intercepted packages addressed to Pauley
from the Arkansas woman that contained body parts, according to The Associated
Press.
According to
the affidavit, Pauley told authorities he intended to resell the body parts.
Investigators allege that Pauley arranged to pay the Arkansas woman $4,000 for
the body parts through Facebook Messenger.