Former Autopsy Aide Held After Human Remains Found

A former autopsy assistant who allegedly collected an array of severed limbs, body organs and at least two fully preserved human heads so he could study anatomy at his Davis home was in police custody Saturday on suspicion of smuggling the remains out of medical facilities in the area, authorities said.

David Lawrence Beale, 46, was arrested Friday after a search of his home, a nearby shed and a rented storage locker turned up 157 pounds of human remains, said Davis Police Lt. Jim Harritt. The remains, many of them preserved in formaldehyde, included a torso, spinal cords, fetuses, whole and dissected organs, and bones from limbs.

Harritt said the two heads were “very well preserved. If you had known the person, you would have recognized the face.”

Beale, who had worked as a contract autopsy assistant at several facilities in the Davis area, reportedly collected the items because he was curious and wanted to conduct his own research, police said.

“People wonder if this was some sort of fetish,” Harritt said. “Well, he seems to have a legitimate interest in human physiology, and he’d bring this stuff home to dissect it.”

Authorities also discovered microscopes, dissecting tools and preservatives that they believe were stolen.

Beale has been booked on suspicion of removing human remains with the intent to dissect or sell them, possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine. He was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail at the Yolo County Jail.

Beale’s former boss described him as a reliable employee with a flair for dissection. He worked as an autopsy assistant for the company 11 years and left in 2001 to take another job.

“He was fascinated with anatomy,” said Robert Wood, owner of Pathology Support Services, based near Sacramento. “But nobody believed he’d do something like this.”

The company has contracted at various times with the Sacramento County coroner’s office and the UC Davis Medical Center. His job gave Beale access to human remains, police said, though it is still unclear exactly where he might have obtained them. Wood said that his company keeps strict control over its remains but that Beale could have removed parts from hospitals he was working in.

Friday’s arrest culminated an investigation that began June 3, when someone reported to police that a container of body parts had been found near a trailer park trash bin close to Beale’s home. A subsequent tip led police to seek search warrants.

Harritt said that speculation over the body parts found near the bin was rampant and that residents feared they might be the product of a serial killer or a Satanist. Harritt said Friday’s discovery was a relief of sorts, because it did not appear that any of the parts were connected to a homicide.

Beale told investigators he had buried some parts under a trailer home where he lived in the mid-1990s, authorities said.

“He had stuff with tissue on it, so he put it under there so the bugs would eat the tissue,” Harritt said. “But there was so much formaldehyde that he knew it would take several years for that to occur. In the meantime he moves and forgets he’s got the stuff under there.”