The black market body trade

A multi-million dollar industry

Mystery Mob, 

In 2018, a woman named Fredericka Hancock was contacted by the FBI. They told her that the body parts - head, arms, legs - of her late husband had been sold by the funeral home without her consent. The problem was that her husband had been “cremated” a year earlier…

This stuff happens beyond shady funeral homes, too. Each year, thousands of Americans donate their bodies to “science.” Unfortunately, many of these people are unwittingly contributing to an unregulated, and often sinister, national market.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we dive into black market body rings, let’s answer this Wednesday’s whodunnit riddle: 

A man murders his wife with a knife, leaving no trace and no witnesses. He returns home. An hour later the police call to tell him that his wife has been murdered and to come to the scene of the crime straight away. As soon as he arrives, he is arrested.

How did the police know he did it?

Answer: The police never told him where the crime scene was. Yet he showed up anyway…

Now, back to the topic at hand (speaking of hands...$175 dollars will get you one.) 

The illegal body broker market  

Did you know that the black market for body parts is a multi-million dollar industry? Did you know that for the sweet little price of $600, you can buy a human leg? You might say, gross, dude. Or, the morbidly curious among you might ask...how much does a whole body cost? 

(Sort of brings a whole new meaning to the idiom “it costs an arm and a leg,” am I right?!)

See, body brokers are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. Selling hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal (btw there is a large black market for organs as well, but we’ll get to that another time). 

Unfortunately, no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education, so it’s basically a free-for-all. Almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts.

These donated cadavers and body parts are used to train medical students, doctors, nurses, PAs, and dentists. Even paramedics use real human heads and torsos to practice implementing breathing tubes. 

Five years ago in a lawsuit against an Arizona body broker (which was later shut down), a price list was uncovered: 

Now that you’re properly educated, let’s get back to Fredericka...

A funeral home with an illegal secret 

Fredericka, a Colorado resident, signed a contract with Montrose Funeral Home to cremate her husband’s body. She did not, however, consent to dismembering. 

And she’s not the only one. Over 50 family members of deceased loved ones sued the family that operated the funeral home. They were (very correctly) claiming that they did not receive the real remains of their deceased relatives. 

The FBI investigated. Colorado regulators shut it down. 

According to one of the lawyers representing the families:

“The funeral homes are just trying to get those bodies free, and then they are going to chop them up themselves in parts and make money off the bodies.”

Yep. Pretty much. 

I wish this type of story was rare. But it’s not. We found another one in Illinois…let’s drive over. 

The Chicago body broker ring

In 2015, a similar situation occurred in Chicago. Two businesses - a Schiller Park crematorium and the Rosemont office of the Biological Resource Center of Illinois - were busted by federal authorities. 

They were caught because the bodies in the warehouses were all set on ice rather than embalmed. (Sort of a red flag for them being sold instead of cremated or buried…)

The businesses lied to donors, promising the bodies would not be sold. 

But it gets worse. 

Unsealed investigation documents noted that the businesses were masquerading diseased remains (infected with HIV, Hepatitis, and others) as healthy. Why? So they could sell to hospitals and doctors in the U.S. and overseas, without warning, for medical training. 

Yiiikes. But at least they got caught? 

Unfortunately, there are likely many more out there. In 2017, Reuters identified 34 active body brokers across America. Of these, 25 were for-profit orgs and 9 were non-profit. 

Dive 6 feet underground: 

If you’re eager for the full stories of these scummy black market body sellers, well, the Mystery Nibbles team has your back:

• Here’s an ABC news article and video on the Chicago ring

• Here’s an article detailing Fredericka’s story in Colorado

• Here’s the full Reuters write up on the body broker firm industry

As always, 

Stay ‘spicious 

-Andy & Mark

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