Trial opens in lawsuit over ‘Frankenstein’ use of remains
PHOENIX — A retired FBI agent described a horrific raid of a nowclosed body donation facility Monday, recalling a table stacked with severed human legs, heads stuffed in a cooler, and torsos without heads and limbs. Mark Cwynar testified on the opening day of a civil trial that one torso had its head removed and a smaller head sewn on, comparing the discovery to a character from Frankenstein.
The relatives of 23 people whose remains were donated to the Biological Resource Center contend in a lawsuit that the facility mishandled their deceased loved ones and misled them about how the remains would be used. The lawsuit alleges the facility committed fraud by claiming the donated bodies would be used for medical research, when, in at least two cases, it knew the human remains would be sold for use in destructive military testing.
The lawsuit also alleges that donor families who were promised the cremated remains of relatives received boxes with what they thought were their loved ones, but later discovered the bodies were sold to third parties or were still at the facility.
They are seeking unspecified damages.
Some FBI employees who wore hazardous material suits and breathed through respirators during a 2014 raid of the facility had to undergo counseling, Cwynar said. “I personally observed several individuals emotionally upset. Some individuals refused to go back into the scene,” he testified, noting other evidence-collection workers had to be called in.
Company owner Stephen Douglas Gore pleaded guilty in October 2015 to a felony charge for his role in mishandling donated body parts.