New Questions Arise in Probe of Misused Body Parts

UC Irvine is looking into what may be further evidence that cadavers intended solely for medical school and hospital use have been misused.

The university is asking why two families who donated their parents’ bodies to the medical school’s Willed Body Program paid hundreds of dollars to outside companies instead of the university for the return of cremated remains.

In both cases, families received ashes identified as those of their parents two years earlier than the remains of most cadavers used in anatomy classes are returned.

The cases add to growing concerns about how the Willed Body Program was run under Christopher S. Brown, the program’s director, who later was fired. Last month, the Orange County district attorney’s office began investigating allegations that Brown profited from the sale of body parts and cadavers intended for use by the university’s medical school.

Brown’s attorney, Stephen Warren Solomon, declined to comment about the latest revelations. In previous interviews, Brown has denied any wrongdoing.

The first of the two new cases is that of 82-year-old Anneliese Yuenger, who died in April. The ashes the family received were identified with a tag that belonged to a collection of body parts cremated two months before her death. The Yuenger case provides the first evidence that the remains of cadavers donated to UC Irvine were returned to the wrong people.

A computer virus destroyed most of the program’s records, and UC Irvine officials have been trying to determine if cremated remains had been returned to the 34 families that had requested them in the last three years.

Yuenger’s children say they handed over a $600 check for the ashes made out to Harry’s Transport, a company that had a contract to move UC Irvine’s cadavers. Brown held an interest in the company for a short time.

A second case, that of 78-year-old Joe Coghill, shows that someone other than the university cashed a check for the fee the university charges a donor’s family for the return of ashes.

Skip Coghill said his father died of a heart attack May 12 in Palm Desert. Five days later, a representative from UC Irvine’s Willed Body Program picked up the body. Coghill said he was told he wouldn’t get his father’s ashes for at least two years, which is the usual time needed for bodies to be prepared and used for research and teaching.

Nonetheless, records show the corpse was cremated in June, raising questions as to whether the body was used for the intended purpose. On Aug. 4, Skip Coghill recalled, Brown contacted the family and offered to return the remains.

A delivery service delivered the ashes in a cardboard shipping box about Aug. 20, Coghill said.

“We’re questioning whether that’s my dad’s remains,” he said.