MADRID.- The Spanish police announced this Monday the arrest of the owners and two workers of a funeral home in Valencia (east) who illegally sold corpses – generally of people without family – to universities for 1,200 euros each (almost 1,300 dollars).
In addition, the four detained suspects – Spanish and male – helped the universities to dispose of the corpses already studied, incinerating them or distributing their dismembered remains in the coffins of other people who were going to be cremated regularly.
The suspects “falsified documentation to be able to remove the bodies from hospitals and residences to later sell them to universities for study for 1,200 euros per corpse,” the National Police explained in a statement.
At least, the suspects trafficked eleven corpses, according to the police statement.
“They invoiced 5,040 euros to a university for carrying out 11 cremations of bodies, once studied, which were not reflected in the invoices issued by any of the incinerators operating in the city,” the statement added.
The investigations began at the beginning of 2023, when investigators verified how two funeral home workers, after falsifying documents, had seized a body that was in the hospital morgue and transferred it to a university for study, instead to bury him.
The deceased had to be buried in his town of residence in a charity funeral paid for by the city council, but he was sold to be studied without anyone’s consent.
The suspects “were looking for deceased people without relatives, preferably foreigners,” the statement added.
In another case, those involved obtained permission from an elderly man with impaired abilities to donate his body to science.
“In addition, said donation was signed so that the body would be sent to a certain medical school, finally being taken to another” that “paid more money for it.”
Those involved are suspected of an alleged crime of fraud and document falsification.
Source: With information from AFP/EUROPA PRESS
