DETROIT — Two years after federal agents raided his Detroit warehouse and found 1,000-plus human body parts, Grosse Pointe Park businessman Arthur Rathburn has been indicted on charges he ran an illegal cadaver business that involved dismembering bodies without consent and renting heads, arms and legs riddled with disease to unsuspecting medical researchers.
Among the parts discovered in the grisly case were eight human heads that were packed in a trash bag inside a blood-filled camping cooler, including one that came from a person who died from sepsis and pneumonia, court records show. Rathburn claimed the liquid in the cooler was “Listerine,” the indictment alleges, when he “knew the liquid was blood.”
His wife, Elizabeth Rathburn, also was charged in the indictment, which was unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleging the pair knowingly bought infected body parts from cadaver centers in Arizona and Illinois and then rented them out to customers for medical or dental training, without revealing the parts were diseased. According to the indictment, here are examples of infected body parts that the Rathburns rented out for research:
-In 2011, the Rathburns provided a head and neck that tested positive for hepatitis B for a course titled “Advances in Periodontology” at the Hyatt Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. Rathburn attended the event.
-In July 2011, another head and neck with hepatitis B was used for “Advanced Bone Grafting” training provided by the California Implant Institute in San Diego.
-In October 2012, remains infected with hepatitis B and HIV were provided for a meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in Washington.
-In February 2012, the Rathburns delivered a package of eight fresh human heads using a Delta cargo airplane to a customer. None of the heads were embalmed, even though Rathburn claimed they were. One of those heads came from someone who had sepsis and pneumonia.
“This alleged scheme to distribute diseased body parts not only defrauded customers from the monetary value of their contracts, but also exposed them and others to infection,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in announcing the indictment. “The alleged conduct risked the health of medical students, dental students and baggage handlers.”
Rathburn, a former University of Michigan morgue attendant, has long been the central figure in a yearslong investigation dubbed “Body Brokers.” The FBI has been on his track for years, but it wasn’t until December 2013 that it raided his warehouse in Detroit, seizing more than a thousand of body parts – heads, hands, legs, torsos – which have been stored in a deep freezer at the Wayne County Morgue.
According to the indictment, Rathburn used chainsaws and other types of saws to cut up the bodies “without taking sanitary precautions.”
Rathburn is currently in custody. He and his wife were both arrested Friday. His attorney, Brian Legghio, was not readily available for comment.
Before getting into the body parts trade, Rathburn’s career included many highs. While at the University of Michigan Medical School he received patents for designs on stations where cadavers and their parts are prepared. He published a reputable journal on embalming and autopsy stations, and lectured nationally on the topic of anatomy.
But after he lost his job at the University of Michigan amidst accusations he was selling body parts, he started his own business – and the federal government was watching, including the FBI and border officials who started tracking his shipments of body parts, including buckets of heads that arrived at Detroit Metro Airport from places like Israel and Greece. Researchers there used the heads, then sent them back to Rathburn, who would sell them over and over again for profit, according to court documents.
And he made lots of money, authorities claim. A human body is worth anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 if sold in parts, court records show. Brains can fetch $600; elbows and hands $850.
While it is not illegal to sell body parts or tissue, the FBI investigation centered on three possible crimes.
-Bodies being dismembered without the donors’ consent and sold for profit, deceiving donors and their families who were promised they would not be sold – just used for medical research.
-Bodies going to science without the clear consent of the donors.
-Body donation centers selling body parts riddled with disease to unsuspecting medical researchers.
The FBI notes in court documents that most body parts do get used for medical research and training. But the growing demand for body parts in the constantly evolving medical world has created a gray-black market in which body brokers are crossing both legal and ethical lines to meet this high demand.
“While this trade is not, in and of itself, illegal … crimes have been committed,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
Detroit FBI Chief David P. Gelios said the indictment represents part of a broader investigation into what he called a “poorly regulated willed-body-to-science industry.”
“We recognize that thousands of donor families, medical doctors and affiliated personnel across the country have been adversely affected by these illegal acts,” Gelios said. “This investigation does not stop here. We continue to work with our state and federal partners to conduct a full and rigorous investigation.”
The “Body Brokers” probe originated in Detroit in December of 2013, when federal agents raided Rathburn’s eastside Detroit warehouse, International Biological, and seized more than 1,000 body parts that were found on ice – not embalmed – including:
-The head of an Illinois man whose mother had no idea her son’s body would be dismembered and sold.
-The head, with the brain removed, of an Illinois woman whose husband would not have donated her body had he known she would be dismembered.
-The head, right shoulder and leg portions of another woman whose son told the FBI he was never told that “the body of his mother would be cut into pieces and sold for profit.”
According to court records, Rathburn dealt only with parts that were “fresh, frozen, and never embalmed.” The grisly discovery in Detroit triggered more raids across the country. Two cadaver businesses were shut down, including Rathburn’s. Thousands more body parts were seized. Numerous families of the deceased were interviewed, with many relatives saying they had no idea their loved ones’ bodies would be dismembered and sold for profit. And had they known that, records show, they never would have donated their loved ones’ bodies to science.
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