In a startling admission, a former mortuary worker from Arkansas has confessed to selling 24 boxes of stolen body parts from medical school cadavers to an individual in Pennsylvania, totaling nearly $11,000.
Candace Chapman Scott, aged 37, entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property in federal court. Initially, she had pleaded not guilty when indicted last year.
Scott’s involvement surfaced in a wide-ranging scheme to pilfer and market human body parts from an Arkansas mortuary and Harvard Medical School. She orchestrated the deals with Jeremy Pauley, a Pennsylvania resident she encountered through a Facebook group centered on “oddities.”
Pauley had previously admitted guilt to charges linked to the illicit acquisition and sale of body parts from the Arkansas mortuary and Harvard.
At Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, where Scott was employed, her duties encompassed the transportation, cremation, and embalming of remains. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, a source of donated medical cadavers for student study, dispatched remains to this mortuary.
Scott’s legal representative opted not to comment on the matter. Pursuant to a plea agreement, federal prosecutors dismissed 10 additional wire and mail charges against her. She faces potential prison terms of up to 10 years and fines reaching $250,000 for transporting stolen property, as well as up to 20 years in prison and the same monetary penalty for mail fraud.