By Brianna Morris-Grant
abc.net.au

In October 2021, a woman in the US state of Arkansas allegedly typed out a simple Facebook message: “Just out of curiosity, would you know anyone in the market for a fully intact, embalmed brain?”

The woman was a staffer at Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, and according to prosecutors, the message was sent to an antique dealer in Pennsylvania.

Warning: This story contains content that may be upsetting for some readers.

A search of his home would later uncover multiple buckets containing human remains, including pieces of brain, heart, livers, skin and lungs.

Investigators say the pair were part of an underground community spanning multiple states across the US, made up of both morgue staff and collectors willing to pay top dollar for human remains.

Here’s how it unfolded.

The ‘oddities’ dealers and the ‘tanned human skin’

Several months before the woman in Arkansas allegedly contacted him, investigators say self-described “preservation specialist” Jeremy Pauley received a shipment of human skin in the mail.

Pauley, 42, is a collector of “medical antiquities” and “tribal artefacts” who offered preservation restoration services.

“Specimens that are graciously donated to science deserve the upmost [sic] respect and care — long after their immediate use in the scientific field,” he wrote on his website.

“Every body donated to science deserves to be used for its intended purpose, even if that requires months of conservative efforts to do so.”

Somewhere around June or July, prosecutors say, Pauley was asked to tan the skin allegedly sent to him by Katrina Maclean.

Ms Maclean was herself an “oddities” dealer, running her business, Kat’s Creepy Creations, out of Peabody, Massachusetts.

“[She] engaged his services to tan the skin to create leather,” says a grand jury indictment.

“On or about July 31, 2021, Pauley sent a photograph of the leather and Maclean agreed to provide Pauley with human skin in lieu of monetary payment.

___
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-21/harvard-morgue-human-remains-theft/103730798