VIDEO: Body parts sold online were donated to research, Arkansas hospital says
SCRANTON, Pa. – A Pennsylvania man who purchased body parts from a Little Rock woman was sentenced to six years in federal prison on Monday.
The judge sentenced 43-year-old Jeremy Lee Pauley to Thompson, Pennsylvania, to 6 years for conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. Judge Matthew W. Brann also ordered Pauley to pay a $2,000 fine and serve three years on supervised release after completing his prison term.
Police: Pennsylvania man tried to buy stolen human remains
There is no parole in the federal court system.
Others previously sentenced as part of the investigation were 37-year-old Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, who received a 15-year federal prison sentence in January. Scott was working for an area mortuary and began selling human remains to Pauley after reaching out to him on Facebook.
The remains Scott sold were used for medical research, and included a skull, multiple brains, an arm, an ear and more. Also, she sold two fetuses to Pauley that were slated to be returned to the parents as cremains, and instead ashes were returned to the parents.
Little Rock woman sentenced for stealing and selling human remains
Also previously sentenced was the former manager of the Harvard Medical School medical donations mortuary, 58-year-old Cedric Lodge, and his wife, 65-year-old Denise Lodge of Goffstown, New Hampshire, to 8 years and a year and a day, respectively. Cedric Lodge would steal body parts destined for cremation, the court heard.
Five others who bought and sold body parts and shipped them by mail received sentences of 15 to 18 months for their roles in the conspiracy.
“The trafficking of stolen human remains through the US Mail is a disturbing act that victimizes already grieving families while also creating a potentially hazardous situation for Postal employees and customers,” said Christopher Nielsen, the Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service. “I hope our efforts, and these sentencings, bring some amount of closure to those affected by this terrible crime.”
Pauley indicated in a Facebook post that he planned to appeal.
“My legal team and I plan on discussing our next moves, including appeals, which I made sure to maintain my rights to when I took the guilty plea,” he posted to his personal page. “I will not go quietly into the night.”
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