Man Arrested For Buying, Selling Human Remains On Facebook

A man has been arrested for allegedly buying and selling human remains through the Facebook Marketplace in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania.

According to East Pennsboro police, Jeremy Pauley, 40, has been accused of buying human remains from a woman identified as Candace Scott, of Arkansas, who had allegedly stolen the body parts, which were owned by the University of Arkansas, from a mortuary.

When the authorities questioned Pauley on June 14 regarding his purchase of human remains on Facebook Marketplace, he said that he was a collector of “oddities” and that all his macabre acquisitions were bought legally. He then disclosed to the officers that he had three full skeletons and approximately 15-20 human skulls, ABC27 News reported.

Later, on July 8, police received a call from someone who found five buckets of human organs and skin in a basement. After officers from the East Pennsboro Police Detectives, Cumberland County Forensics, and the Cumberland County Coroners’ office executed a search warrant on the property, they found three to five buckets containing various human remains inside the residence.

The buckets reportedly contained two human brains, skin, a heart, kidney, spleen, fat, skull with hair, two livers, six pieces of skin/fat, a trachea, a child mandible with teeth, and two lungs.

Further investigation by the police revealed that Pauley allegedly regularly bought human remains via Facebook Messenger from a woman named Candace Scott in Arkansas, PennLive.com reported.

According to investigating officers, Pauley recently bought US$4,000 worth of body parts consisting of half a head, a whole head minus the skull cap, three brains with a skull cap, one heart, one liver, one lung, two kidneys, one full female pelvis, one piece of skin with a nipple, and four hands.

Scott, who reportedly shipped the items via the United States Postal Service from Arkansas, was found to be stealing body parts from a mortuary in Arkansas that was being managed by the University of Arkansas. When officers interviewed Pauley, he admitted to purchasing two shipments of body parts from Scott. Pauley also confessed that he resold the body parts to other individuals for monetary gain.

“If you equate it to like stolen car parts or something like that…if they are dealing in stolen car parts, selling them, it’s a higher level charge, and that’s what you’re going to have in this case,” Cumberland County District Attorney Seán McCormack said.

Pauley has been arrested but was released on a US$50,000 bail on charges of felony dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, felony receiving stolen property, misdemeanor receiving stolen property, and misdemeanor abuse of a corpse. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 14.