The FBI found buckets of limbs, bodies stitched together from different parts, and a refrigerator with male genitals during a raid on an Arizona organ donation center in Phoenix.
The Phoenix Biological Center was raided after a nationwide investigation. In 2013, federal authorities began investigating the black market for bodies and firms that sell donated bodies for research purposes to intermediaries. Former FBI agent in Arizona, Mark Quiner, in his testimony to the court, called what he saw in Phoenix "a terrible sight." He personally inspected the Biological Center. Quiner said he saw large male torsos with severed limbs and genitals, buckets and coolers with various body parts, including a bucket with heads, arms, and legs.
Body parts were piled on top of each other all over the center, with no apparent identification. It was the same in the steel freezers: frozen body parts that belonged to some unknown person. One of the bodies was sewn like a Frankenstein monster: a woman's head was sewn to a man's torso.
According to Reuters, the agents found 1,755 human body parts and filled 142 bags weighing 10 tons.
Another former FBI agent Matthew Parker, who worked on the case, wrote that he "could not sleep at night" after what he saw. There was a feeling that they were "digging in a dump" and not investigating the object.
The court documents contain testimonies from two forensic experts. According to them, several parts of the bodies were plastinized for long-term use for training or educational purposes. Such use of body parts requires a separate agreement with relatives.
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Arizona is a free regulatory zone for the body parts business. The state now has at least 4 such centers and a non-profit organization for freezing bodies - however, the infamous biological center is closed. Typically, the centers accept the bodies of the deceased from relatives in exchange for a certain amount and a promise to cremate the unclaimed remains.
Following a high-profile Reuters investigation and shocking details about the Phoenix finds, 33 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against business owner Stephen Gore. The relatives of the deceased feel deceived, claiming that they have been misled by “false promises”, while the remains of their loved ones were sold to intermediaries for profit, and the bodies were stored and disposed of without due respect.
Many relatives were convinced that they donated the bodies of their loved ones to charity, for scientific research, organ transplants, the study of diseases, in order to save someone's life. Not everyone understands the difference between organ donation and body donation. Few could imagine that their departed loved ones would be dismembered and sold in parts.
The case will be heard by the Maricopa Supreme Court on October 21.
In 2013, BRC had a price list that was presented in court:
- Whole body without shoulders or head: $ 2,900
- Torso with head: $ 2,400
- Whole spine: $ 950
- Leg: $ 1,100.
- Foot: $ 450
- Knee: $ 375
- Taz: $ 400.
In 2017, Arizona and Colorado passed a bill obliging such centers to obtain a state license, but the law has not yet been enacted. The centers that now operate throughout the state are accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks. BRC Phoenix did not have such a license. Stephen Gore in tears admitted his guilt in 2015. In his letter to the Supreme Court, before the sentencing, he said that he felt depressed, but asked to take into account that he was engaged in a business devoid of official rules on which to rely.
Stephen Gore received his secondary school education, he did not have a single certificate or license that gave him the right to do this business.
“I could have been more candid about the donation process in the brochure we published. - wrote Horus. "I should have hired a medical director and not rely on medical knowledge from books or the Internet."
In 2015, Stephen Gore was sentenced to a year in prison, 4 years of probation, and was awarded $ 121,000 in compensation.
