Arthur Rathburn, the cadaver dealer who is facing charges for his illegal operations, was released on bond on Tuesday. He has been sent to temporarily reside in a court-appointed halfway house in Detroit while waiting for the results of his case.
Since 2006, Rathburn's work of dismembering cadavers and selling parts to various medical and research institutions has been known to the public. He was even featured in the book "Body Brokers" by author Annie Cheney that details the underground world of people who sell body parts for a living, according to the Detroit Free Press.
But then, the Federal Bureau of Investigation finally zeroed in on him a couple of years ago and carried out a raid on his warehouse in Detroit in 2013. During the operation, law enforcers discovered and seized over 1,000 body parts preserved in ice inside the facility.
These parts, which include heads, torsos, legs and necks, will be presented as evidence for Rathburn's indictment. As noted by the FBI, although selling of body parts is legal, the suspect will still face criminal charges since he carried out the dismemberment and sale of the cadavers without the consent of donors and their families. In addition, he profited from the operation and even sold body parts that were contaminated by various diseases.
As detailed in the indictment allegations made against Rathburn, many of the cadaver parts he sold and presented to various institutions, such as San Diego's California Implant Institute and Washington's American Society of Anesthesiologists, tested positive for hepatitis B and HIV. He also supplied limbs infected with the former disease for a medical course titled "Advances in Periodontology" which was held at Massachusetts' Hyatt Hotel in 2011.
The court records also indicated that Rathburn used to ship coolers containing blood and a severed heads through commercial airliners. He allegedly told the airlines that the liquid inside the containers was Listerine, a brand of mouthwash, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Rathburn and his estranged wife Elizabeth, who is also facing criminal charges, were arrested on Friday. It is not yet clear when hearings for their cases will be conducted since investigations are still ongoing.
