The abortion doctor who stashed more than 2,245 fetal remains in his garage also hoarded personal property throughout his home in Crete, Illinois, leading to a weeklong investigation by police who remain bewildered about his motives.
Officials from Will County, Illinois, don’t know why Dr. Ulrich “George” Klopfer hoarded fetal remains at his home and are transferring the investigation to Indiana, where Klopfer used to perform abortions before he lost his medical license in 2015. Klopfer died Sept. 3 at age 75, and the coroner, Patrick O’Neil, would say only that he appears to have died of natural causes.
One of the Indiana clinics where Klopfer practiced for decades was in South Bend. Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend since 2012 and a 2020 Democratic candidate said Wednesday: “There’s no question that what happened is disturbing. It’s unacceptable.” Vice President Mike Pence, who used to be Indiana’s governor, tweeted that Klopfer’s “actions should be fully and thoroughly investigated.”
Kevin Bolger, the attorney representing Klopfer’s wife, Sherry, told the Washington Examiner that the garage where the remains were discovered was so full of personal belongings that people couldn’t open the door to walk into it. The rest of the house was similar.
“He was a hoarder and the house was floor to ceiling piled with garbage and boxes, old TVs, typewriters, and computers, you name it … You can barely walk down the hallways in the home,” Bolger said.
Police confirmed Thursday at a press conference that they had not found fetal remains elsewhere in the house or on the property. They also did not find evidence that Klopfer performed abortions at his home.
“I have never seen anything like this ever,” Will County Sheriff Mike Kelly, who has been working for 31 years, said of the home’s condition. “It’s one of those once in a lifetime things.”
The remains were discovered Sept. 12 by Klopfer’s family. After he died, Sherry was going through his things, alongside her sister and brother in law, when one of them discovered the fetal remains, which were medically sealed and placed in cardboard boxes, piled floor to ceiling in the garage. They immediately called an attorney, who then called the Will County Coroner’s Office.
“She is in total shock,” Bolger said of Sherry. “She had nothing to do with this, had no idea he was doing this, and had no way to find out.”
Kelley, the sheriff, urged the public “not to pass judgment” on the family, which he said was cooperating with the investigation. Some of the boxes discovered in the garage were also filled with other personal property.
According to the police investigation, Klopfer appears to have taken the remains from the clinics where he used to provide abortions in South Bend, Gary, and Fort Wayne. The fetal remains were dated 2000 to 2002, Kelley said, which suggests the remains likely came from the clinics where he operated.
The remains are being transferred to the Indiana attorney general’s office. Will County officials would not discuss whether they were the product of abortions performed later in pregnancy. Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said Klopfer appears not to have kept proper records, but that it wasn’t clear whether transporting the fetal remains across state lines was illegal.
Earlier in the day, the prosecuting attorney in St. Joseph County, Indiana, searched the clinic in South Bend, which has been shut down for several years, as well as the empty lot next to it, and did not find any other fetal remains there.
The findings in Illinois have bolstered abortion foes nationwide who call for tighter restrictions and oversight on the procedure. It has also edged into the 2020 presidential election because one of Klopfer’s clinics that was shut down by authorities was in Buttigieg’s hometown.
When Pence was Indiana’s governor he signed a bill into law that mandated abortion clinics bury or cremate fetal remains. The law wasn’t in effect when Klopfer practiced because it was being contested in court, but the Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this year and the latest discovery at Klopfer’s home could strengthen the push for similar legislation in other states.
The discovery of the stockpiled fetal remains is the latest development in years of back-and-forth that Klopfer, during his life, faced with the state regulators and with abortion foes. Klopfer lost his ability to practice medicine in 2015 due to poor record keeping, for flouting state rules about waiting periods, and for failing to report sexual assaults after girls came to his clinic for abortions.
Multiple anti-abortion advocates interviewed by the Washington Examiner said that Klopfer, despite being unable to practice, would still regularly visit his clinics in South Bend and Fort Wayne, but Bolger, Sherry’s attorney, said he didn’t know Klopfer personally and could not confirm the information.
The advocates have for years set up shop in buildings immediately adjacent to Klopfer’s abortion clinics, where they would protest and to try to dissuade women from seeking abortions.
This kind of setup is common across the U.S., where pregnancy centers opposed to abortion house buildings nearby that try to divert patients to their facilities so that they will reconsider their decision in favor of motherhood or adoption. Some states have tried to clamp down on the practice, saying that the clinics misleadingly portray themselves as abortion providers in order to get women through their doors.
In Indiana, anti-abortion groups regularly filed complaints about Klopfer and the clinics eventually were shut down.
“We set up camp right next door to him and purposefully monitored every move he made,” Shawn Sullivan, the founder and director of the Apostolate of Divine Mercy, said of the clinic in South Bend.
After Klopfer stopped practicing, anti-abortion advocates continued to closely watch him because they said they worried he might perform abortions again. Instead, he would regularly visit his clinic in Fort Wayne on Wednesday and spend the night, they said. He would spend Friday at the clinic in South Bend. Sullivan and others said he would go into the clinics, and when he was outside he would cut the grass or trim the hedges.
“As a creature of habit, he just kept his routine,” Sullivan said.
The drive from Klopfer’s home in Crete to Fort Wayne takes nearly three hours. The drive to South Bend from the Fort Wayne Clinic takes two hours.
“We would all question what could he possibly be doing in there,” said Jackie Appleman, the executive director of St. Joseph County Right to Life, which is in South Bend.
“It was odd that he would still come,” said Cathie Humbarger, executive director of Allen County Right to Life, which is in Fort Wayne. “Even on the worst weather days he would still come.”
Anti-abortion organizations and politicians have called for more investigations. They want the authorities to find a way to identify the fetal remains, and to release the remains so they can arrange for burials.
