Man charged after purchasing stolen body parts on Facebook

East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania: On Thursday, August 18, 40-year-old Jeremy Pauley was arrested on charges of receiving stolen property, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, and abuse of a corpse.

He has been released on $50,000 unsecured bail. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on September 14.

On June 14, the police received a complaint of human body parts being sold on Facebook.

According to a statement released by the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office, another call was placed on or about July 8 to the East Pennsboro Township Police department concerning possible human remains at a residence.

The caller reported that they had located three 5-gallon buckets containing various human remains in the basement of the home. Police arrived with a search warrant, located the remains, and took them to the Cumberland County lab as evidence.

Pauley, the owner of those buckets, runs "an educational non-profit" by the name of the Grand Wunderkammer. According to the website it's an "organization specializing in traveling exhibits showcasing fascinating death related history to teach the public about death related customs, pathologies, and long lost artifacts."

Those remains were examined by Dr. Wayne Ross, a forensic pathologist and confirmed to be human. He determined that among the remains in the buckets were human brains, a heart, livers, skin, and lungs.

Despite being "very odd" investigators determined that the purchased parts were legitimate.

"This is one of the most bizarre investigations I have encountered in my thirty-three years as a prosecutor" District Attorney Sean M. McCormack said. "Just when I think I have seen it all, a case like this comes around."

Pauley confirmed that he had purchased remains via Facebook messenger from a woman in Arkansas, reportedly for the sum of $4,000 with the intention of reselling those parts.

Among body parts purchased were half of a head, a whole head minus the skull cap, three brains with skull cap, one heart, one liver, one lung, two kidneys, one full female pelvis, one piece of skin with a nipple, and four hands.

The packages, shipped through the United States Postal Service, were located in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

A woman identified as Candace Scott was found to be the originator of those packages. The body parts she was selling through Facebook were determined to be the property of the University of Arkansas.

Fox News Digital received a statement from Leslie Taylor, a spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) saying, "We have a contract with Arkansas Central Mortuary Services to take the bodies for cremation after they are no longer being used by our students. An employee of the mortuary service is under investigation by federal authorities for taking some human remains from the mortuary that were donated to UAMS. We are saddened and appalled that this happened."

The Arkansas State Police reportedly deferred questions concerning charges against Scott to the FBI who has declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.