By Tim Binnall
In a bizarre story out of Arkansas, authorities allege that a now-former mortuary employee stole a staggering array of body parts from her job and subsequently sold them online to a macabre collector. A newly unsealed federal indictment reportedly asserts that Candace Chapman Scott literally took her work at the Arkansas Central Mortuary Services home with her in the form of 20 boxes containing various human organs and limbs. Among the pilfered parts were hearts, lungs, and brains that once belonged to individuals who had donated their bodies to a local medical school for study. Making the case even stranger, authorities say that Scott cashed in on the stolen remains by selling them for around $11,000 to a man she met online.
Detailing the scheme in their indictment, federal prosecutors say that Scott initially approached buyer Jeremy Lee Pauley by brazenly asking "would you know anyone in the market for a fully intact, embalmed brain?" It would seem that the unorthodox sales pitch worked as, authorities say, she proceeded to sell several organs and other body parts to the collector in a series of transactions that unfolded over the course of the next nine months. The nightmarish arrangement was ultimately uncovered by police, leading to the arrest of both Scott and Pauley. She now faces a whopping 12 federal charges for her role in the body part 'business,' while her prized customer faces four charges in his home state of Pennsylvania.