Undertaker sells body parts and gives families the remains of strangers

According to court documents, the company took advantage of the low cost of its funeral services to ensure a steady supply of body parts for sale.

He allegedly ignored the wishes of the family and failed to obtain permission to transfer the bodies or body parts of the deceased to a third party. Signatures on consent forms were forged and families were misled about how their loved ones’ remains would be treated.

According to the indictment, he sometimes obtained family consent to donate small tissue samples or tumors from deceased relatives. In other cases her request was rejected and sometimes she did not address the matter at all. Prosecutors said several families received ashes mixed with the remains of various bodies. A client received a concrete mixture to replace the remains of a loved one.

In each case, he resold heads, torsos, arms, legs or entire human bodies for research purposes or surgical training, the documents said. They often cremated the cremated remains, claiming they were those of their relatives, when in fact they were not. Some of those body parts also belonged to people with infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis — which he allegedly hid from buyers.