CHICAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Investigators probing a shipment
of 18 human heads intercepted at Chicago’s O’Hare International
Airport have determined they came from bodies donated for
scientific research and were being transported for disposal,
officials said on Tuesday.
U.S. Customs agents discovered the grisly package, which was
shipped to Chicago from Italy shortly before Christmas, on
Monday. Because the shipment’s paperwork was not in order,
agents confiscated the heads and sent them to the Cook County
Medical Examiner for safekeeping, a spokeswoman for the medical
examiner said.
The heads, which had been used by a medical research
facility in Rome, were properly embalmed, wrapped and labeled
when they arrived at the airport, said Mary Paleologos, a
spokeswoman for the medical examiner. Foul play has been ruled
out, she said.
On Tuesday, the cremation company that was supposed to take
delivery of the heads and dispose of them presented the missing
paperwork to the medical examiner, Paleologos said.
The medical examiner said the remains would not be released
to the company until federal authorities verified the paperwork.
In the meantime, the medical examiner is photographing and
x-raying the embalmed heads for record-keeping purposes,
Paleologos said.
(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by James Dalgleish)
