XPost: alt.politics.democrats.d, talk.politics.guns, mi.news
XPost: sac.general
From: bwhite@outlook.com

A Detroit-area couple who ran a black-market body part business
butchered donated cadavers with a chainsaw and sold the hacked,
diseased pieces to unsuspecting medical students for a hefty
profit, officials said.

Arthur and Elizabeth Rathburn and their International Biological
Inc. stored body parts from more than 1,000 people inside a
warehouse and rented them out for medical or dental training,
according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.

Many families, who believed they were donating their loved ones’
bodies to science, had no idea someone was dismembering and
making money off of the corpses, prosecutors claimed.

The couple — from Grosse Pointe Park, which is about six miles
from Detroit — is facing a 13-count indictment that includes
charges of fraud, false statements and transportation of
hazardous material.

They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, WXYZ reported.

"This alleged scheme to distribute diseased body parts not only
defrauded customers from the monetary value of their contracts,
but also exposed them and others to infection," U.S. Attorney
Barbara McQuade said in a statement.

The Rathburns obtained bodies from two Chicago-area body-
donation labs, Anatomical Service Inc. and Biological Resource
Center of Illinois, prosecutors claimed. Many of the corpses
were infected with HIV, Hepatitis B and other diseases.

The couple crudely dismembered the bodies, failing to take
industry-standard precautions to insure sanitation and safety —
even when they were dealing with diseased corpses, prosecutors
said.

Arthur Rathburn “used a chainsaw, band saw, and reciprocating
saw to dismember bodies," the indictment read.

The pair also shadily stored the body parts: The corpses were
never embalmed, kept on ice and often strewn together instead of
being carefully put away.

“(The Rathburns) stored human heads by stacking them directly on
top of each other without any protective barrier,” according to
the indictment.

The slick couple sold off the butchered body parts to medical
and dental trainees so the wannabe doctors could practice,
prosecutors said. Sometimes, they failed to tell their customers
the pieces were infected with disease.

"The alleged conduct risked the health of medical students,
dental students and baggage handlers," McQuade said.

It's not clear whether anyone's health was affected.

Arthur Rathburn was ordered to jail until another hearing
Monday. An email seeking comment from his lawyer wasn't
immediately returned. His wife was released on bond.

"Mrs. Rathburn is maintaining her innocence and will continue to
do so," attorney Jeremy Henner said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/body-part-dealer-rented-
infected-cadavers-students-article-1.2514657
 

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