Woman Arrested For Illegal “Organ Harvesting”

A lady from Arkansas accused of selling a Pennsylvania man about $11,000 worth of stolen body parts from medical school cadavers has entered a not-guilty plea.

Former mortician Candace Chapman Scott, 36, is in jail, and a bond hearing to determine her release is set for Tuesday. 

Scoot is charged in an indictment from April 5 that was unsealed in federal court in Little Rock on Friday. Scott is accused of arranging the transactions with a guy she met in a Facebook group dedicated to discussing “oddities.” She had put out a Facebook query asking if anyone was interested in a human brain.

Although the buyer’s name is redacted from the federal indictment, Jeremy Lee Pauley of Enola, Pennsylvania, has been named in separate state charges.

According to the accusation, Scott approached Pauley in October 2021 and offered to sell him human remains that were supposed to be cremated and returned by the morgue to the medical school.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock has claimed responsibility for the disposition of donated cadavers.

At her job with Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, Scott was responsible for helping move caskets, ashes, and embalming. 

Over the next nine months, Scott allegedly sold Pauley various human body parts: brains, lungs, hearts, large patches of skin, and genitalia, according to the indictment. 

She even sold a fetus.

The indictment states that at one point, Scott renegotiated the price of a fetus because of the body’s poor condition.

Scott, a resident of Little Rock, was charged with 12 offenses, all of which she denied committing. These included conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and wire fraud.

According to the charges, Scott received $10,975 through 16 different PayPal transactions.

Pauley faces multiple charges in Pennsylvania, including felony dealing in proceeds of illicit activity, misdemeanor abuse of a body, and misdemeanor receiving stolen property.