S03E09: Flesh for Sale- A Look into the Body Trade

Many people are aware how organ transplantation is handled in the United States, but what most people aren't aware of is just how flawed the system is for handling body donation and brokerage. In this episode, a dive is taken into some of the commonly known and lesser known cases involving illegal body brokerage within the US. The Biological Resource Center was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in 2003 by Stephen Gore and is responsible for the most widely known instance of illegal body brokerage. In the facility, agents found 10 tons of frozen human remains which equates to 20,000 pounds. 1,755 body parts were found that included 281 heads, 241 shoulders, 337 legs and 97 spines. Family members of the victims were informed that "the donations, if accepted, would be used solely for medical and/or scientific research ... that donor bodies would be treated with dignity and respect; and that donor bodies would not be dismembered and/or sold for profit," They were also told that the unused remains of their family members would be cremated and returned to them. Many did recieve boxes with ashes in, but it is hard to tell if the ashes recieved were even their family members since the parts were all commingled and not labeled. Federal authorities had actually began investigating the BRC in 2011 when a Detroit body broker from a company called International Biological Inc was stopped by US customs agents as he crossed the border from Ontario. He had 10 human heads with him. Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation Inc. was a funeral home and body brokerage that was purportedly organized for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes and claimed it was a non-profit. It was ran by Megan Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch. During it's time of operation from 2009 to 2018, the pair devised and carried out a plan to defraud families by selling donated bodies and parts. During this time, the pair forged consent forms and stole bodies for which no donation authorizations were signed and sold them. After bodies were stolen and sold, the pair then delivered false cremains to the families of the deceased. There were 811 bodies or parts sold of which 560 of those were stolenOther body brokerages known as Restore Life USA and Science Care Inc. were involved in questionable and often fradulent body brokering practices but were never charged with anything official. Sources:Courthouse News (2020)Sunset Mesa Timeline9News (2025)9news (2023)9news (2024)Reuters (2017)Reuters (2017)