Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #478

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
FBI Finds Bucket of Heads, Cooler of Penises, Sewn 'Frankenstein' Corpse at Body Donation Center
By Hudson Hongo
In 2013, federal authorities began investigating shady “body bro- kers,”
businesses that sell donated bod- ies for research purposes, such as Arizona’s for- profit Biological Resource Center. That company was shuttered fol- lowing an FBI raid in 2014, but eyewitness details are being made public for the first time— and they’re
almost too grisly to believe.
In a sworn state- ment, former FBI agent Mark Cwynar stated that he saw “vari- ous unsettling scenes” at BRC, including “infect- ed heads,” “a bucket of heads, arms and legs,” and a cooler “filled” with male genitals, the Arizona
Republic and KT VK report. Additionally, Cwynar says he discovered a macabre wall
hanging: a woman’s head sewn onto a man’s torso “in a ‘Frankenstein’ manner.”
According
to Reuters, agents ultimately found 1,755 human body parts at the facility, fill- ing 142 body bags weighing 10 tons.
Matthew Parker, another former FBI agent who worked on the BRC case,
told Reuters that moving body
bags from the facility resulted in a PTSD diagno- sis. “I couldn’t sleep at night after seeing that,” said Parker. “It looked like a junkyard chop shop where they are just ripping things apart.”
Cwynar’s testimo- ny has come to light as part of a lawsuit by 33 people who say that BRC acquired their family members’ bodies through “false state- ments.” Plaintiff Troy Harp, who gave his mother and grandmoth- er’s bodies to BRC,
told KTVK that he believed they would be used for scientific research.
“Cancer, and leukemia and whatever else, using sample cells,” said Harp. “That’s what I was told.”
Reuters, howev- er, reports that at least 21 bodies
donated to BRC were later used by the U.S. Army for blast experi- ments to study the effects of roadside bombs.
The BRC case may be a particu- larly gruesome example, but it points to larger issues of trans- parency and reg- ulation in this lit- tle-known indus- try. Often offering free cremation services to griev- ing families, body brokers sell donated bodies on a research market where a human head can be bought for as little as$300. (Documents show that BRC priced whole
cadavers at $5,000 in 2013.)
In almost every state, selling non- transplantable human body parts is legal as long as they are not fetuses. In recent
years, Arizona an d Colorado have passed laws to regulate body
brokers, but the vast majority of states do not have explicit rules for how donated cadavers must be stored or sold.
After pleading guilty to illegal control of an enterprise, BRC owner Stephen Gore wrote in a letter to a
judge that the business was a “labor of love” that had over- whelmed him. “This was an industry that had no formal regula- tions to look to for guidance,” he wrote. Gore was ultimately sen- tenced to one year of deferred jail time and four years of proba- tion.
Harp told KTVK that he wants more federal reg- ulation of the industry.
“This is a horror story,” said Harp. “It’s just unbeliev- able. This story is unbelievable.”
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