Trial Reveals Horrific Details In The Case Of The Body Parts Broker

On Friday, the trial of Arthur Rathburn– dubbed the body parts broker– started off with a number of unsettling revelations. Rathburn is facing 13 federal charges related to the sale and transportation of diseased human remains to testing facilities, medical colleges, and scientists throughout the country. Elizabeth Rathburn, Arthur Rathburn’s estranged wife, avoided further prosecution when she accepted a deal that allowed her to plead guilty to fraud in exchange for her testimony detailing her husband’s crimes.

In 2013, FBI agents arrived at a Detroit warehouse belonging to Arthur Rathburn in an effort to investigate reports that he and his wife, Elizabeth, had been dealing in diseased body parts. What they found was a veritable smorgasbord of horrors unlike anything they’d ever seen.

FBI agent Leslie Larsen wasn’t prepared for the “filthy” conditions she and her colleagues encountered when they entered the property. They reported containers of all shapes and sizes containing human remains in various states of decay. The room was littered with fly carcasses, and the agents noticed dried blood dotting the warehouse floor.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Larsen testified, saying, “We seized human remains, documents and tools.”

There were paint cans, beer coolers, and Tupperware containers filled with body parts that the couple had intended to package and ship to a variety of different customers. Over a thousand separate body parts were removed and placed on ice in the city morgue for investigation.

Rathburn began his horrific career in 1984, coordinating the anatomical donation program for the University of Michigan’s Medical School. He was fired after being accused of selling body parts for profit and set up his private brokering service specializing in cadavers for research purposes in 1989. Biological International, Rathburn’s company, was based out of a Detroit warehouse on Grinnell Avenue and started to attract the attention of the authorities when strange shipments were reported– including buckets of severed heads arriving at the local airport.

Rathburn would rent out body parts for study, failing to disclose that many of them were diseased or improperly harvested. The indictment revealed that he would purchase these infected body parts from cadaver companies in Illinois and Arizona, and then rent them out as healthy remains at a profit. He knowingly and consciously exposed people all over the country to biological fluids containing a number of different and highly infectious diseases– including, but not limited to, hepatitis, HIV, and sepsis caused by prolonged infection.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced the indictment, saying, “This alleged scheme to distribute diseased body parts not only defrauded customers from the monetary value of their contracts but also exposed them and others to infection.”

The indictment went on to expose Rathburn’s illegal methods of dismembering whole corpses, often using a chainsaw instead of the sterilized surgical instruments required by the industry.

While the sale of cadavers and body parts isn’t illegal, improper handling and fraudulent advertising are. This combined with the unlawful and unsafe transportation of infectious biological material could land Rathburn in prison for up to 20 years. The FBI investigation centered on the illegal use of bodies without the consent of the donors or their families, and deceptive practices regarding the sale of cadavers that were supposed to be donated to science.

Detroit FBI Chief David P. Gelios made a statement on the current investigation, saying–

“We recognize that thousands of donor families, medical doctors and affiliated personnel across the country have been adversely affected by these illegal acts. This investigation does not stop here. We continue to work with our state and federal partners to conduct a full and rigorous investigation.”