Worker Finds Severed Human Heads by His Desk After Complaining to Boss

Human corpses held by the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois (AGA), a non-profit based in Chicago that handles bodies donated to medical schools, have been mistreated, according to an employee, with some rotting or being eaten by rats.

Dale Wheatley, the AGA's transportation coordinator, made the claim at a press conference he held on Tuesday alongside his lawyer. Wheatley also alleges he found three dismembered heads on his desk, the day after he raised concerns about AGA practices with his supervisors.

When challenged, his boss said he didn't know where they came from. He added that "there's a lot of strange things happening," after which Wheatley said he reported the incident to the police.

In 22 of the 68 countries that use cadavers for anatomy teaching, body donation is the exclusive source of cadavers, according to a 2018 study published in Academic Medicine. In the U.S., the supply for anatomy teaching comes mainly from body donation.

At the press conference, Wheatley said, per local network Fox 32 Chicago: "There's been instances where I've pulled donors from our storing room out of the racks, and rats have chewed through the bottom of the bag, through the feet."

Wheatley said some medical schools had been "sending donors [bodies] back because of mold, rot and bugs." He added: "It's deplorable."

David Fish, Wheatley's attorney, said: "We think it's important that, when donors are being recommended to a particular place, their body is going to be treated with respect and dignity, and not be eaten by rats and other bug infestations."

Fish added that a university lab manager had complained to Wheatley about the condition of corpses. He said "flies were crawling on the bodies, that the limbs contained mold and rot, and that its students had become sick after being exposed to the bodies during the course of their studies."

Wheatley said he raised concerns with his supervisors on May 23. He then found three severed heads had been placed on his desk the following day, taken from donated bodies.

Wheatley said he challenged his boss over this, but was given short shrift: "My boss walked by, I asked him why the heads were at my desk. He said they need to get back with their bodies so we can send them to cremation. I said, 'I understand that, Why are they at my desk?' and he said, 'I don't know, Dale, there's a lot of strange things happening.'"

Wheatley added that some human remains hadn't been returned to their families, as they should have been.

Wheatley said: "There are people that are in our cooler now that need their body parts back and they have been there for three years or more.

"Right now at AGA, we have a number of cremains that need to go back to the families, over hundreds of cremains, sitting at our AGA right now," he added.

In addition to the police, Fish said he and his client had asked for investigations from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Newsweek has approached the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois for comment via telephone and email.

In an unrelated incident, police in Mexico have recovered dozens of bags containing human remains from a ravine. A mass search had been launched after seven call center workers went missing from Zapopan.

Separately, a coroner's office in Washington state has confirmed skull fragments recovered by a river belonged to Bret Snow. He was a 32-year-old Spokane Valley fisherman who was reported murdered in 2015, sparking a homicide investigation.

And archaeologists have found human remains that are more than 1,500 years old in Barcelona, Spain, after Roman-era tombs were excavated.