Man Connected to Harvard Human Remains Scandal Sentenced to Six Years in Prison
“Pauley relishes his position as a notorious, financially successful trafficker of human remains”
If you missed this story months ago, it reads like something out of a horror movie.
WBUR reports:
Human remains seller connected to Harvard Medical School thefts sentenced to 6 years in prison
A central figure in the sprawling, nationwide network of human remains trading that ensnared Harvard Medical School was sentenced in federal court to six years in prison.
Jeremy Pauley, who lives in rural Pennsylvania, is a fixture in the online oddities trade. He’s known in the community for binding books in human skin and preserving fetal remains. Pauley admitted to buying fetuses, skin, hearts and brains from a mortuary worker in Arkansas and purchasing skin and organs sourced secondhand from Harvard Medical School.
Through his macabre businesses, prosecutors estimated he made between $250,000 and $550,000.
The Middle District of Pennsylvania’s Judge Matthew Brann handed down the sentence — which included a $2,000 fine and three years of supervised release — to Pauley on Monday, capping a more than three-year case against him. Pauley was ordered to report to prison on Jan. 16.
It was Pauley’s arrest by local police in 2022 that exposed the underground body parts marketplace where buyers and sellers used Facebook, PayPal and the U.S. Postal Service to advertise, sell, trade and ship body parts across the country. Nine people were ultimately charged, with body parts sourced and stolen from a mortuary in Arkansas, a hospital in Kansas and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
But even after pleading guilty in federal court in 2023 to charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, Pauley “leaned in,” federal prosecutors wrote recently, and continued to trade in stolen human remains. He and his partner opened a shop that sells human bones, among other “curiosities.”
“Pauley relishes his position as a notorious, financially successful trafficker of human remains,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last week. “Pauley continues to seek out and occupy a central place within the market and sale of human remains and other so-called ‘oddities.’ ”
Prosecutors alleged Pauley purchased “bodies of dead babies,” pointing to social media posts that they filed under seal. They sought a 15-year sentence and $20,000 fine against Pauley.
This is the man in question, in case you were wondering.
Who could have EVER seen this coming?
"Harvard Medical School morgue manager, several others charged for selling stolen human remains"https://t.co/VkrGkpWSub pic.twitter.com/kPY6TJPP4U
— Dan Lyman (@realdanlyman) June 14, 2023
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Comments
Even before I saw his photo, somehow I just KNEW he was going to be one of those “extreme body modification” ghouls.
Type that into a search bar (image tab) if you want to have a sleepless night,
Seems more fitting that Harvard should dismember Pauley, and sell the junk.