An Alabama mortuary worker was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for selling body parts, including fetuses, to a collector covered in tattoos and piercings. Candace Chapman Scott, 37, sold human remains from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Anatomical Gift Program to Jeremy Lee Pauley, a heavily pierced Pennsylvania man she met on a Facebook group that discussed the sale of body parts.
During her sentencing, Judge Brian S. Miller described her crimes as some of the worst he had ever seen. Scott, from Little Rock, was sentenced for transporting stolen human body parts out of the state and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Scott pleaded guilty to the charges last April. Her actions, which included selling various body parts between October 2021 and July 2022, were deemed disturbing by prosecutors.
Pauley, 42, a self-described “oddities collector,” paid Scott $10,625 for 24 body part boxes, part of a national network of body snatching from Harvard Medical School and the Arkansas mortuary.
Investigators found several body parts at Scott’s home, and she confessed to bagging them at her job. She even informed Pauley that the wrong ashes from a cremated body would be returned to the parents of the deceased fetuses.
At the sentencing, Doneysha Smith, Lux’s mother, expressed her heartbreak over the crimes. She mentioned being haunted by the thought of her son being sent around like a package.
Miller, the judge, apologized and sobbed before the sentencing. The FBI condemned the crime as truly incomprehensible and detestable.
FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder stated, “This sentencing does not reverse the immeasurable damage caused to the victimized families, but the FBI and our partners will continue to work towards ensuring justice is served for all.”
Pauley, awaiting sentencing in Pennsylvania after pleading guilty to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property, is currently out on bond.
