A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after he allegedly purchased human remains that were stolen with possible intentions to resell them online.
Jeremy Pauley, 40, was arrested on July 20 and charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property, and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, according to the East Pennsboro Township Police Department. Pauley initially appeared in court on Thursday and was released on a $50,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing.
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“I think I’ve seen it all, and then something like this comes around,” said Sean McCormack, district attorney for Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. “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.”
Pennsylvania police received a call reporting suspicious activity on June 14, and officials discovered Pauley had been purchasing human remains from a woman in Arkansas on Facebook. The corpses were located in Enola, Arkansas, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to police.
The remains were meant to be donated to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, according to the Associated Press. However, before they arrived, they were stolen from Arkansas Central Mortuary Services in Little Rock by a female employee. A spokeswoman for UAMS said a federal investigation had been opened into the incident.
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Pauley, a self-described collector of “oddities,” told police he had acquired the remains legally, according to a police affidavit obtained by the outlet. Upon initial investigation, officials found what they described as older human remains that they determined he had legally obtained.
However, police returned to the home on a later date after receiving a second tip, and officials found more human remains, including five-gallon buckets of assorted body parts, according to police. Pauley told investigators he intended to resell the body parts.
