Illinois Worker Finds 3 Severed Heads at His Desk After Job Complaints

A worker at a Chicago company that distributes human body parts for medical research says someone left three severed heads next to his desk in a macabre act of retaliation after he complained about the condition of donor bodies.

Dale Wheatley, the transportation coordinator for the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois, filed a police report after discovering the three disembodied heads sitting on a blue plastic storage tub by his desk.

"At first I was confused," Wheatley tells PEOPLE. "My boss walked by, and 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."

Wheatley said in his five years at the job, body parts had never before been placed by his desk and normally are kept in designated storage areas before he retrieved them to deliver to medical schools for students to dissect and study. They are later collected, cremated and the ashes are returned to families.

"I asked him why they were at my desk," Wheatley said. "And he said, 'I don't know Dale, there's a lot of strange things going on.'"

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Wheatley, 37, also said he found rolled up bunches of smoldering sage throughout the office, which he interpreted as harassment. Some cultures believe burning sage can help reduce negativity.

"I think they were trying to say it's for warding off evil spirits," Wheatley said. "And I was the evil spirit."

The "shocking" experience with the heads followed a complaint by Wheatley last month that donated bodies were not being properly embalmed or stored and as a result, were subject to rotting and mold. Rats had chewed through storage bags and bitten cadavers' feet, according to his attorney, David Fish, and other degradation and decomposition made the bodies unusable or shortened the length of time they can be studied.

"The body goes to waste if it's not properly cared for," Fish tells PEOPLE.

One medical school lab manager contacted the anatomical association to report that some of the donors they received were in such poor condition they couldn't be used. In a message viewed by PEOPLE, the lab manager noted a bug infestation, decomposing tissue on the hands and feet.

William O’Connor, executive vice president of the non-profit company, could not be reached for comment by PEOPLE but the Chicago Tribune reported that he denied that donor bodies were mistreated and said handling body parts is in Wheatley’s job description.

Wheatley, who also lodged complaints with the Cook County Medical Examiner and the Illinois Department of Public Health, wants to see better care taken of the bodies and the work spaces.

"He in general felt the facility needs to be improved," Fish says. "They need to treat the donors with more respect."