Elsie Saunders of Louisiana thought she had donated her husband’s body to science after the 98-year-old World War II veteran died from COVID-19 and pneumonia last August.
Instead, 70 people – some who paid up to $500 for a ticket – gathered inside a meeting room at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront in Oregon months later to watch an autopsy of the body. Now, the county where the dissection occurred has banned for-profit displays of human remains.
In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners moved to ban the for-profit display of human remains, according to Oregon Live/The Oregonian. It is expected to be approved April 21, and it includes a $1,000 fine per violation, per day.
How did Saunders’ body get to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo “Cadaver Lab Class” in the first place?
According to Oregon Live/The Oregonian, his wife donated his body to Med Ed Labs, a Nevada-based “organization established to provide medical and surgical education.”
Med Ed Labs said “mock surgeries and other training events for medical professionals are often held at hotels around the world.
From there, Saunders’ body was sold to a media company called Death Science, founded by Jeremy Ciliberto. In a statement, Ciliberto said the company told him it had done a serology test on the body to rule out any infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. He also said his company is conducting an internal review.
Med Ed Labs spokesperson Obteen Nassiri said the company was told the body would be used to train people involved in death sciences, including morticians, coroners and medical students. He said he was not aware tickets would be sold for the event.
“This was a very unfortunate incident that a company took advantage of our donors and our services to further their economic goals,” Nassiri said. The company has since implemented stricter operation protocols, he said.
Death Science brought the body to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, an annual traveling event marketed toward “lovers of the strange, unusual and bizarre,” held last October at the Portland, Ore., hotel.
“Our hotel team was grossly misled by the client about the nature of this event,” Martin McAllister, general manager of the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront. “We understand the public’s concerns about the activities that transpired, and we are reviewing our process for vetting medical event inquiries in light of this situation.”
During the expo, Colin Henderson – a retired University of Montana anatomy professor who does not have an active license to practice medicine in Oregon – performed an autopsy on the body. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
KING 5 TV first reported the incident and shared video of the event. Video from KGW 8 also showed gloved attendees touching the body. Saunders’ wife learned what happened to her husband’s body when KING-TV published footage that showed his name printed on an arm band still attached to his wrist.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s horrible, unethical, and I just don’t have the words to describe it,” 92-year-old Elsie Saunders told the Advocate in Baton Rouge. “I have all this paperwork that says his body would be used for science – nothing about this commercialization of his death.”
When she donated the body, she was told it would be used for research and that the remains would be returned to her in an urn. There was some “ambiguity” in the contract she signed, according to East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore.
Kimberly DiLeo, Multnomah County’s chief medicolegal death investigator, said she contacted the Portland Police Bureau and Oregon Medical Board before the event because she was concerned.
DiLeo she had never seen anything like the event in two decades working as a death investigator. She said the way Saunders’ body was handled could be considered abuse of a body, a Class B felony in Oregon.
A Portland police spokesperson told The Oregonian/OregonLive that detectives consulted with the Oregon Department of Justice, Oregon State Police and Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and determined no crimes were committed during the autopsy.
“No family should bear the horror or guilt associated with learning that their loved one was placed on display for paying members of the public to autopsy and touch their organs in a hotel ballroom,” DiLeo said.
Med Ed Labs said it has returned Saunders’ body to his family’s funeral home of choice. His wife requested that the company return his body instead of cremating him.
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