A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for his role in a gruesome scheme involving the purchase and interstate transportation of stolen human remains.
Matthew Lampi, 50, of East Bethel, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to purchasing stolen body parts, including the corpse of a stillborn baby boy, from Jeremy Pauley of Pennsylvania.
Pauley, in turn, had acquired the remains from Candace Chapman Scott, who stole them from her employer, a mortuary and crematorium in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Scott admitted to stealing body parts from cadavers she was supposed to cremate, many of which had been donated to a medical school for research and educational purposes. She also stole the bodies of two stillborn babies.
The stolen remains were sold to Pauley and shipped to Pennsylvania, where he then sold them to various individuals, including Lampi. The two men engaged in an extensive network of buying and selling body parts, exchanging over $100,000 in online payments.
Among the remains Lampi purchased was the corpse of a stillborn baby named Lux. Lux’s mother, who had entrusted the funeral home with her son’s cremation, received ashes that were not her son’s. Scott had stolen the baby’s body and sold it to Pauley, who then sold it to Lampi.
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In addition to his prison sentence, Lampi was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and $1,700 in restitution to Lux’s mother. Both Pauley and Scott are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal charges in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, respectively.
This case is part of a larger investigation into the interstate trafficking of stolen human remains. Multiple individuals have been charged in Pennsylvania and Arkansas.
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