O.C. College Triggers New Willed-Body Investigation

A complaint from Orange Coast College over a poorly preserved corpse led authorities Friday to a Corona office stocked with frozen cadaver parts and prompted the arrest of a man suspected of stealing a body willed to science.

The investigation of a former employee of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona is the second involving willed-body programs in recent weeks. Citing similar circumstances, UC Irvine dismissed the director of its program last month amid allegations that he sold cadaver parts for personal profit and steered business to associates.

The latest investigation was triggered when the Costa Mesa community college paid $1,100 for a cadaver, then complained to the Pomona medical school that the body had deteriorated. Western University officials said they didn’t know the cadaver had been sold, and alerted Pomona police.

Early Friday, they searched the private offices of Phillip Joe Guyett Jr., 32, who had headed the university’s willed-body program until he quit in March. What they found initially caused them to believe they had uncovered evidence of multiple heinous homicides.

At the office, located in an industrial business complex, investigators found two commercial freezers filled with skulls, a severed head, what appeared to be a heart, and other body parts.

By day’s end, Guyett had produced death certificates and other documents to show “that all the parts were legitimate. . . . The paperwork matched everything at the scene,” said Corona police Sgt. Eddie Garcia.

Guyett was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement but was not jailed. He helped inventory the frozen parts for the Riverside County coroner’s and sheriff’s office.

It was unclear--and the subject of the Pomona police investigation--how Guyett acquired the body parts and the cadaver, which he was selling through his companies, California Anatomical Society and IDK Information Services, according to Pomona police Capt. Joe Romero.

Similarities to UCI Scandal

The case bears several similarities to an unfolding scandal involving UC Irvine’s Willed Body Program, now the subject of an Orange County district attorney’s embezzlement investigation. Former program director Christopher S. Brown--who has not been charged with a crime--has denied any wrongdoing and said he kept his supervisors informed of his activities.

Willed-body programs can be tricky to run well, experts have said, in part because they involve tracking of cadavers and their parts for years as they are shuttled from institution to institution. UCLA’s program was sued several years ago for mishandling the ashes at its program, but the suits were dismissed.

Willed-body programs allow people to donate their bodies to enhance medical education and research. It is not uncommon for smaller schools, such as Orange Coast, to purchase cadavers from schools with willed-body programs.

On Friday, Guyett--who remains enrolled as a student in Western’s physician’s assistant program--declined to speak with reporters who swarmed to his office. His suite had no signs identifying the type of business being conducted inside, nor giving any hint of what was being stored there.

Evidence gathered Friday suggests Guyett acted as an intermediary, providing parts of donated cadavers to research facilities, said Bill Mitchell, a Riverside County prosecutor who visited the scene. Prosecutors are investigating whether Guyett violated any law in doing so, Mitchell said.

Christopher N. Oberg, Western University’s executive vice president, said Friday that after Guyett quit in March as director of the school’s willed-body program, questions arose “about the incomplete nature of the program’s record keeping.”

The university was still trying to piece together Guyett’s records when, last week, it received a complaint from Orange Coast College about the quality of a cadaver that the university did not even realize had been released, Oberg said. Furthermore, he said, there was no record that Western University had received money for it--although Orange Coast said a check had been mailed to IDK.

Oberg said the medical school handles about 90 cadavers a year, and that no other cadavers were believed missing.

Orange Coast College ordered the cadaver March 3 from Guyett, who identified himself as a staff member of Western’s willed-body program, said Stan Johnson, dean of mathematics and science at Orange Coast.

This was the first time Orange Coast tried to purchase a cadaver from Western’s willed-body program, on the recommendation of a former student.

The community college, which enrolls about 300 students in its anatomy and physiology program each semester, typically obtains a cadaver or two a year from UC Irvine and UC San Diego. Some community colleges, such as Orange Coast, offer classes in which students interested in medicine, physical therapy or nursing can observe cadaver dissections. By contrast, university premedical students are generally not required to take such classes and UCI does not offer them for undergraduates.

The cadaver arrived later in March and appeared in fine condition, although it lacked a required state form for disposition of human remains. The form was delivered a few days later from IDK.

At the time, Johnson said, no one thought it odd that a private company--IDK--was billing for a cadaver from Western University.

The cadaver was stored until August when fall classes began. By then, it was starting to mold--a sign it hadn’t been properly embalmed. A call to IDK yielded a disconnected phone line, Johnson said, and the college complained to Western University.

The medical school, Johnson said, has offered to replace the cadaver.

A UC Irvine spokeswoman confirmed Friday that the university has also done business with Guyett. Ledger records indicate that UCI’s Willed Body Program paid IDK $323 for a torso in 1998, spokeswoman Sherry Angel said.

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Times Community News reporter Douglas Haberman contributed to this article.