Authorities determined that a funeral home based out of Valencia allegedly falsified records to make it look like the person had authorized the use of their body for scientific research, before handing them over to universities for study.
An investigation into the corpses for cash dealings began in 2023, after the irregular removal of a corpse from hospital morgue was reported to police. The body, which was to be buried in a charitable burial paid for by the town council, was instead sold to a university for nearly US$1,200.
The funeral home staff were very cautious in selecting their inventory, police said. Employees allegedly chose deceased persons who were either foreigners or had no next of kin on file, to ensure that no one would come to claim the bodies.
One such cadaver belonged to a man who had supposedly signed over his body to science three days before his death. However, it was later revealed that he suffered from severe cognitive impairment, so it is unlikely he truly understood what the donation form entailed, authorities said.
On top of this, his body was ultimately referred to a different university than the one initially agreed upon, because it paid more money for the body, police said.
Investigators later uncovered that the funeral home also found a way to double dip from its alleged under the table dealings.
As soon as the universities finished studying the corpses, they had to return them to the funeral home and pay for the subsequent cremations. Authorities discovered invoices issued to a university for 11 cremations totaling more than $5,400.
However, the invoices did not appear in any of the incinerator logs operating in Valencia. Instead, records of the bodies were passed off as other deceased individuals whose bodies were properly processed.
In this way, they performed only one cremation and earned the difference, police said.
Officers arrested the heads of the funeral home, whose names were not made public, as well as two of its workers. They are charged with fraud and document falsification.
