Lawyer: Family unaware of fetal remains
2,000-plus found in Crete Township garage after abortion doc’s death
The family of a recently deceased Indiana abortion doctor has no idea why more than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains were stored in the family garage in Crete Township, an attorney representing the doctor’s widow said Monday.
Chicago attorney Kevin Bolger said Dr. Ulrich Klopfer’s family has been cooperating with investigators since his wife made the discovery when cleaning out the garage after her husband’s death.
“She has no idea long how they had been there and no idea why he put them there,” he said. “Nobody knows.”
Bolger said the garage was stacked “floor to ceiling” and was not used by the woman at all.
“You could barely walk in there.”
Klopfer had three abortion clinics in Indiana: in Gary, South Bend and Fort Wayne.
Will County authorities said Monday they wouldn’t be discussing the discovery of 2,246 preserved fetal remains further until their investigation is completed.
The Indiana and Illinois attorneys general will work together to investigate the situation, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said in a statement Monday.
Hill said he conferred over the weekend with Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and they “agreed to work together” as Hill’s office coordinates an investigation into the remains found at the home near the state border unincorporated Crete Township home of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer.
The Will County sheriff ’s office spokeswoman, Kathy Hoffmeyer, said Monday the probe of Klopfer’s home is “a very sensitive situation” involving the sheriff’s office, coroner’s office and prosecutors.
In Indiana, four lawmakers are demanding an investigation to determine if the fetal remains were illegally transported across state lines.
State Rep. Ron Bacon and three fellow Republican lawmakers issued a statement Sunday saying the Indiana attorney general’s office should investigate the abortion clinics in Allen, Lake and St. Joseph’s counties where Klopfer worked.
The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment on that request Monday.
On Monday, neighbors of the doctor described Klopfer as being friendly.
“He was really a sweet person,” one neighbor who declined to identify herself said.
She and another neighbor, Antoinette Zimmerman, said they knew Klopfer performed abortions but could not fathom that the doctor may have kept the remains at his property.
“I cannot believe that,” Zimmerman said.
Neighbors said that three large waste containers arrived at the property late last week. On Monday, a Will County sheriff’s office squad was parked in the driveway of the home.
No connection has been made regarding the Indiana clinics where Klopfer worked and the preserved fetuses.
A filmmaker who interviewed the doctor said Monday that Klopfer used to visit at least one of his former clinics for years after its services were shut down by Indiana regulators.
According to Mark Archer, a producer and filmmaker from Fort Wayne, Klopfer would visit his former Fort Wayne clinic every week about five years after the clinic shut down, arriving on Wednesday, spending the night at the clinic and leaving Thursday morning.
On Jan. 11, 2016, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint, alleging Klopfer violated state law nine times. The state alleged he failed to provide qualified personnel to monitor patients undergoing surgical abortion procedures.
As a result, his license was suspended in August of that year in Indiana.
Klopfer was licensed as a physician and surgeon by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation from early April 1973 until the end of July 1990, according to department spokesman Chris Slaby.
In 2017, Klopfer was listed on the “refuse to renew” list with the department due to a discipline case in Indiana.