Prison Time for Members of Ring that Dealt in Stolen Human Remains
Members of a ring that dealt in stealing and reselling human corpses and body parts are sentenced to federal prison.
First, 39-year-old Angelo Pereyra of Kansas was sentenced to 18 months after pleading guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains and body parts.
Pereyra worked as a pathology assistant at a Kansas hospital. According to court documents, he stole remains and body parts from that hospital, including human hearts, brains, spleen, testicle, intestine, and livers, amputated feet and toes, and other parts.
Some of the specimens came from living patients. ”Most egregiously, Pereyra stole the corpses of miscarried and stillborn fetuses before they could be properly buried,” a release from the Middle District of Pennsylvania stated.
Pereyra then sold the stolen body parts to Andrew Ensanian of Montgomery, Pennsylvania, and shipped them to Pennsylvania via the U.S. Postal Service. Ensanian pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
In another case, 50-year-old Matthew Lampi of Minnesota was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the interstate transport of stolen human remains.
Lampi admitted that he bought the remains, including the corpse of a stillborn baby boy, from Jeremy Pauley, a resident of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Court documents say Pauley purchased the remains from an Arkansas woman, Candace Chapman Scott, who worked at a Little Rock mortuary and crematorium. Scott allegedly stole body parts from her job, along with the corpses of two stillborn babies she was supposed to have cremated. She allegedly handed the mother of one of them, ashes of something else.
Scott then sold the remains to Pauley, who then sold them to Lampi and others. Prosecutors say Lampi and Pauley exchanged over $100,000 in online payments in a series of transactions.
Both Pauley and Chapman Scott are awaiting sentencing after entering pleas of guilty to federal charges in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, respectively.
The charges come after a multi-year investigation into the nationwide trafficking of stolen human remains.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) led the investigation.
