HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) — Families across the country will never know if they received all of their loved ones ashes, causing “deep emotional harm,” and the Department of Justice says one Pennsylvania man played a vital role in orchestrating.
Federal prosecutors are seeking a 15-year prison sentence for Cumberland County native Jeremy Pauley and a $20,000 fine, for his role in a massive multi-state network of buying and selling hearts, hands, brains, faces and other body parts.
Pauley pleaded guilty to the interstate transport of stolen property and conspiracy of interstate transport of stolen property.
According to court documents, he’s scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 22 in Williamsport. CBS 21 will have a crew at the sentencing.
In a 41-page sentencing recommendation, federal prosecutors outlined why they felt Pauley should get that penalty and wrote that the court should impose a sentence at the higher end of the guidelines.
Prosecutors wrote Pauley “relishes his position as a notorious, financially successful trafficker of human remains.” In fact, he owns an “oddities” store in Honesdale, called The Wunderkammer Olde Curiosities Shoppe.
That’s part of the reason why prosecutors wrote that Pauley:
Was and remains a central figure in this disturbing market and is a central figure in the nine federal prosecutions that arose from this investigation. He caused deep emotional harm to an untold number of family members left to wonder about the mistreatment of their loved ones’ bodies.
The case first came to light in June 2023 when Pauley was arrested at his Cumberland County home.
Police said they found multiple four gallon jugs filled with body parts.
However, after they started investigating, prosecutors said Pauley had been in the business of buying and selling human remains for years.
Starting in 2021, when they said Pauley used Facebook to advertise that he was selling remains and used it to connect with other individuals and PayPal to send and receive funds. Prosecutors said they would ship body parts in the mail with the U.S. Postal Service.
Prosecutors said Pauley bought body parts from Katrina Maclean and Joshua Taylor in 2020 and 2021. Those remains were stolen from the Harvard Medical School Anatomical Gift Program by the former morgue manager Cedric Lodge, prosecutors said
READ MORE | Man who led Harvard Anatomical Gift Program pleads guilty in body parts case
Lodge has been sentenced to eight years for taking body parts from donated cadavers prior to cremation and selling them between 2018 and 2022.
Prosecutors said Pauley also bought the fetal remains of stillborn children and other body parts from Candace Chapman-Scott, prosecutors said. Chapman-Scott was a former employee of a crematorium in Arkansas.
Pauley was accused of buying brains, internal organs, and two stillborn fetal corpses from Chapman-Scott. She has also pleaded guilty to charges of transporting stolen body parts.
Prosecutors have connected Pauley to body parts that were sold to several other people across the country, including a man in Minnesota.
In their push for a harsher sentence against Pauley, prosecutors point to several different legal theories to justify the 15-year prison sentence.
They write that, despite pleading guilty, Pauley has not accepted responsibility for his actions. Prosecutors also write that he may still be illegally obtaining remains.
Pauley continues to make a living through buying and selling human remains. He has come, again, into possession of the bodies of dead babies. His conduct is wholly inconsistent with acceptance of responsibility.
The DOJ collected social media posts of Pauley saying he has an ongoing collection of dead babies, leather made of human skin, candles made from human fat, and additional “wets” in his shop.
“Wets” are often referred to as organs or other body parts that are normally internally in a body.
Prosecutors said Pauley argues his post-indictment work is legal, but they wrote:
Throughout this investigation, having conducted dozens of interviews of individuals who engage in the buying, selling, stealing, collecting, and preservation of human remains, the government has yet to identify a legal means of obtaining organs, skin, fetuses, or other parts of deceased human beings. The people who engage in this type of commerce maintain a don’t-ask-don’t-tell practice, where they often willfully ignore the provenance of the remains in which they trade.
READ MORE | PA man connected to body part selling ring sentenced to 2 years of probation
Pauley was sentenced to two years’ probation on state crimes in 2024 for abuse of a corpse.
Prosecutors said Pauley’s “ongoing pursuit and commitment to notoriety within the oddities community is inconsistent with acceptance of responsibility. It should not be awarded.”
Prosecutors said for those reasons, among others, a stricter sentence should be imposed.
They said his conduct was “unusually heinous, cruel, and degrading.” They also wrote that it “offended the rights of the dead,” and by taking a the fetal remains of a stillborn child against the mother’s wishes, he did “immeasurable harm” to the victim.
CBS 21 has reached out to Pauley and to his attorney for a statement on this case.
In an email, CBS 21 asked why he was still part of the oddities business, how he sources his merchandise, and if he had anything to say to the victims.
He hasn’t responded.
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