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Michigan cadaver dealer indicted over body parts
Michigan cadaver dealer indicted over body parts
http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/29/mich-cadaver-dealer-indicted-body-parts/79545226/
DETROIT — It was 2006 when Arthur Rathburn's name and morbid profession first surfaced in a book called Body Brokers, which delved into the underground world of cadaver dealers and labeled him a shady mortician who sold and rented heads, necks and legs for a handsome profit.
On Friday, after years of being watched by the FBI, Rathburn of Grosse Pointe Park was indicted on numerous charges in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accused of running a nationwide scheme that involved cutting up bodies without consent and renting heads, arms and legs riddled with disease to unsuspecting medical researchers.
A dazed and homeless Rathburn sat in court on Friday, reading the 19-page indictment that accused him of heinous acts, like cutting up bodies with chainsaws, shipping blood-filled coolers of fresh heads on commercial airliners — falsely claiming the blood was Listerine — and storing more than 1,000 body parts on ice at his rundown warehouse in Detroit.
Rathburn, who has been living out of his van and his warehouse pending a divorce, was ordered jailed over the weekend, though he could be released on bond next week and placed in a halfway house. His estranged wife, Elizabeth Rathburn, also was charged in the indictment and appeared in court with her sister. She was released on bond and said nothing as she left the federal courthouse, hiding her face behind a stack of white papers.
http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/29/mich-cadaver-dealer-indicted-body-parts/79545226/
DETROIT — It was 2006 when Arthur Rathburn's name and morbid profession first surfaced in a book called Body Brokers, which delved into the underground world of cadaver dealers and labeled him a shady mortician who sold and rented heads, necks and legs for a handsome profit.
On Friday, after years of being watched by the FBI, Rathburn of Grosse Pointe Park was indicted on numerous charges in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accused of running a nationwide scheme that involved cutting up bodies without consent and renting heads, arms and legs riddled with disease to unsuspecting medical researchers.
A dazed and homeless Rathburn sat in court on Friday, reading the 19-page indictment that accused him of heinous acts, like cutting up bodies with chainsaws, shipping blood-filled coolers of fresh heads on commercial airliners — falsely claiming the blood was Listerine — and storing more than 1,000 body parts on ice at his rundown warehouse in Detroit.
Rathburn, who has been living out of his van and his warehouse pending a divorce, was ordered jailed over the weekend, though he could be released on bond next week and placed in a halfway house. His estranged wife, Elizabeth Rathburn, also was charged in the indictment and appeared in court with her sister. She was released on bond and said nothing as she left the federal courthouse, hiding her face behind a stack of white papers.
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