Spanish police announced Monday that they had arrested the owners of a funeral parlor in Valencia for allegedly selling dead bodies to university research departments for 1,200 euros each corpse.
The four suspects, two proprietors and two employees, also assisted the universities in disposing of the bodies after they had been studied, either by incineration or by placing their fragmented pieces in other coffins destined for burning.
The majority of the remains belonged to persons who had no family.
The suspects allegedly used “falsified documentation to get the bodies from hospitals and retirement homes in order to later sell them to universities for research for 1,200 ($1,300) per corpse,” according to a statement released by the police.
The accused have sold at least 11 bodies, it said.
In some cases, they even charged the colleges for cremations that never occurred.
“They billed one university 5,040 euros for incinerating 11 bodies after being studied, which were not accounted for in the invoices of any of the crematoriums in the city,” the law enforcement agency stated.
Police launched an investigation in early 2023 after discovering that two funeral parlor employees had stolen a body from a hospital morgue using bogus documents and sent it to university researchers rather than burying it.
The body belonged to a guy who was supposed to be buried in his hometown in an internment paid for by the local government, but was instead sold for study without anyone’s permission.
The suspects “looked for people who had died without any living relatives, preferably foreigners,” according to authorities.
In another case, the suspects allegedly convinced an elderly man with poor mental abilities to donate his corpse to science.
“That donor form stated that the body should be sent to a specific medical facility, but it was ultimately taken to another” that “paid more money,” according to the police statement.
The suspects are charged with fraud and falsifying documents.