Heads turn in US over body parts shipments
Source: Agencies |
April 3, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
The human head and torso were found inside the red biohazard tub in what was supposed to be a routine medical waste shipment from New Mexico to a Kansas company. That gruesome discovery last week turned out to be just the start.
Over the next few days, six more heads and torsos, apparently dismembered with a chain saw or another cutting device, turned up in containers also sent by the Albuquerque company Bio Care Southwest.
Bio Care owner Paul Montano was arrested on Thursday following an investigation into the company that was supposed to have donated the organs in the bodies to science and had the remains cremated.
One man whose father's remains showed up in the shipment in Kansas said the family received ashes of what they thought was their 83-year-old dad after he died of a stroke. Now they are in shock at the thought that the ashes they scattered in a heartfelt remembrance last year may not have been their father -- or at least not all of his remains.
"To not give you everything and to have the head shipped some place else, it's really disturbing," said Chuck Hines, of Bosque Farms, New Mexico.
The owner of Bio Care Southwest denied dismembering any bodies. Montano told police his father picks up and delivers bodies to Bio Care. The investigation is ongoing; his alleged motive was not immediately known.
Bio Care receives donated bodies and harvests organs and other parts that it sells for medical research. The researchers return the organs to Bio Care once their experiments are complete, then Bio Care sends the remains for cremation and gives the ashes to the families, investigators said.
Bio Care's Website says its mission is to advance medicine through donated non-transplantable human tissue, allowing scientists to study a donor's organs to better understand disease.
"At Bio Care, you will always be treated with dignity, respect and honesty," its home page says.
The company has a contract with Stericycle, based in Kansas City, Kansas, to dispose of any leftover medical waste.
Stericycle told investigators it receives medical waste, soft tissue and organs and occasional limbs -- but never heads and torsos. Homicide detectives in Kansas City began investigating the grim body part discoveries, and they were eventually traced back to New Mexico.
Over the next few days, six more heads and torsos, apparently dismembered with a chain saw or another cutting device, turned up in containers also sent by the Albuquerque company Bio Care Southwest.
Bio Care owner Paul Montano was arrested on Thursday following an investigation into the company that was supposed to have donated the organs in the bodies to science and had the remains cremated.
One man whose father's remains showed up in the shipment in Kansas said the family received ashes of what they thought was their 83-year-old dad after he died of a stroke. Now they are in shock at the thought that the ashes they scattered in a heartfelt remembrance last year may not have been their father -- or at least not all of his remains.
"To not give you everything and to have the head shipped some place else, it's really disturbing," said Chuck Hines, of Bosque Farms, New Mexico.
The owner of Bio Care Southwest denied dismembering any bodies. Montano told police his father picks up and delivers bodies to Bio Care. The investigation is ongoing; his alleged motive was not immediately known.
Bio Care receives donated bodies and harvests organs and other parts that it sells for medical research. The researchers return the organs to Bio Care once their experiments are complete, then Bio Care sends the remains for cremation and gives the ashes to the families, investigators said.
Bio Care's Website says its mission is to advance medicine through donated non-transplantable human tissue, allowing scientists to study a donor's organs to better understand disease.
"At Bio Care, you will always be treated with dignity, respect and honesty," its home page says.
The company has a contract with Stericycle, based in Kansas City, Kansas, to dispose of any leftover medical waste.
Stericycle told investigators it receives medical waste, soft tissue and organs and occasional limbs -- but never heads and torsos. Homicide detectives in Kansas City began investigating the grim body part discoveries, and they were eventually traced back to New Mexico.
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