Woman accused in scheme to sell fetuses

A Colorado woman is facing criminal charges for shipping fetuses to the United Kingdom — a shipment that federal officials say they intercepted at San Francisco International Airport.

Federal prosecutors charged Emily Suzanne Cain with one count of attempted smuggling of goods, according to an indictment filed Oct. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Federal law prohibits the transfer of human fetal tissue. Authorities believe the fetuses were stillborn and donated to Creighton University in Nebraska between 1920 and 1930.

In Facebook messages authorities obtained through a search warrant, Cain allegedly discussed acquiring a collection of fetal wet specimens and tried to sell four specimens for $20,000. In another conversation, Cain allegedly said she had bought the specimens from a female friend who is the head of the biomedical department at a university that was downsizing, according to a criminal complaint.

A lawyer listed as Cain’s in court documents could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday. Cain also could not be reached for comment.

University officials told authorities the fetuses should have been cremated not sold if they were no longer going to be kept, in accordance with their policies, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors allege Cain mailed a package labeled “school teaching aids and tshirts” on Oct. 15, 2018, from a Cañon City, Colo., U.S. Postal Service office to an address in Southampton, United Kingdom, according to the complaint.

Authorities performed an Xray scan when the package was at SFO days later, before it was loaded onto a plane bound for London, because a form that declares that a package does not contain any undeclared dangerous articles had not been signed. The scan showed “what appeared to be a human shape,” the complaint said.

Because of the inconsistencies between the label and the scan, authorities inspected the package and found three glass containers, each with what appeared to be human fetuses.

A card in the package, signed “Emily,” included a handwritten apology for the delay that also stated the “contents were beautiful,” the complaint said.

The San Mateo County coroner’s office later determined the contents in the containers were human remains.

The complaint also included a summary of two calls a postal customer, who identified herself as Cain, made including one on Oct. 30 to inquire about a package that had been held up in San Francisco for about two weeks. The woman told a postal worker the recipient was “getting a little antsy.”