Former mortuary worker admits to selling 24 boxes of stolen body parts

A former mortuary worker faces decades in prison after admitting to selling stolen body parts for more than $10,000.

Candace Chapman Scott, 37, pleaded guilty in federal court for her part in a nationwide scheme to sell human body parts from a mortuary in Arkansas and Harvard Medical School.

Prosecutors said Scott ‘stole human body parts and fetal remains’ while working at Arkansas Central Mortuary Services - where she would transport, cremate and embalm remains as part of her role - between October 2021 and July 2022.

“Scott would then sell the stolen human body parts and fetal remains, arranging for them to be transported across a state line to the purchaser,” they said, explaining how she sold 24 boxes of the body parts from medical school cadavers to a Pennsylvania man for almost $11,000.

She has pleaded guilty to transporting stolen body parts across state lines, and to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Candace Chapman Scott (Pulaski Count Jail)

According to the Associated Press, under a plea agreement with Scott, federal prosecutors dropped 10 other wire and mail charges against her.

However, she now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the charge of transporting stolen property charge.

She also faces up to 20 years in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000, on the mail fraud charge.

The plea agreement said Scott ‘introduced herself as a mortician at a trade service mortuary, explaining that the mortuary was contracted through UAMS in Little Rock to cremate medical cadavers’.

A press release from the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas outlined how Scott was indicted on 5 April 2023 and was charged with charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Stock image (Team Static/Getty Images)

“In exchange for her guilty plea, the remaining charges were dismissed,” it said, adding that Judge Brian S. Miller will sentence Scott at a ‘later date’.

Scott is among several charged in what prosecutors have called a nationwide scheme to steal and sell human body parts from the Arkansas mortuary, and from Harvard Medical School.

An indictment unsealed last year accused her of setting up transactions with Pennsylvania man Jeremy Pauley, having met him via a Facebook group.

Pauley pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the theft and sale of the body parts from the Arkansas mortuary and Harvard last September.