More than a year after FBI agents raided a Phoenix body procurement business, details about the investigation are finally being released.
A search warrant filed in Illinois shows the raid at the Biological Resource Center is part of a multi-state investigation into what the FBI calls "body brokers."
The search warrant claims the BRC is affiliated with other businesses in Illinois, Michigan and Nevada. It claims the owners of those facilities were lying to their customers about what would happen to the bodies after they were donated.
The FBI says the BRC of Illinois told customers they could dictate where and how bodies would be used. Customers also told investigators they were told body parts would never be sold.
But FBI agents uncovered evidence that the BRC dismembered bodies and sold them anyway, against the wishes of the deceased.
One woman told investigators she had donated her son to the BRC of Illinois, but never would have done so if she'd known he could be cut up and sold.
Agents recovered his head, two legs and left shoulder in a raid on a facility in Detroit.
The warrant also shows the people involved in the investigation were sending body parts across state and international lines. Customs officials found eight severed heads wrapped in garbage bags lying in blood-filled coolers at an airport in Michigan.
The FBI also accuses the BRC of lying about whether the bodies were infected with diseases like HIV and Hepatitis. Investigators claim the BRC would test the bodies as required by law, but ignore the results and sell parts anyway.
Court documents also show BRC in Phoenix was locally owned, but not locally operated. The FBI believed the business was operated by a company called Platinum Training in Henderson, Nev.
Documents show the owner of Platinum Training, Charles Oddo, had an office inside the BRC in Phoenix when the business was raided.
So far, no one has been arrested or charged with any crimes. It's not illegal to make money from the buying and selling of human remains for medical research purposes. But the FBI is alleging the companies committed fraud and lied to investigators.
