Woman from Arkansas indicted in $11,000 sale of stolen body parts

Little Rock, Arkansas – An Arkansas woman has entered a not guilty plea to accusations that she sold a Pennsylvania man 20 cartons of stolen body parts from cadavers at a medical school for close to $11,000.

The 36-year-old Candace Chapman Scott, a former mortuary employee, is charged with arranging the transactions with a guy she met through a Facebook group about “oddities” in the April 5 indictment, which was unsealed on Friday in federal court in Little Rock.

Scott, a resident of Little Rock, entered a not guilty plea to 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and interstate transportation of stolen property.

A hearing to determine whether Scott will be granted bond is scheduled for Tuesday. Scott is currently incarcerated. An email requesting comment on Saturday was not immediately responded to by Scott’s attorney.

The buyer is named as Jeremy Lee Pauley of Enola, Pennsylvania in separate state charges; he is not named in the federal indictment.

Scott worked for Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, where she was responsible for embalming, transporting, and cremating deceased people. According to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, the medical school transported the cadaveric remains there for the students to examine.

According to the accusation, in October 2021, Scott allegedly approached Pauley and started attempting to sell him the corpses from the medical school that the morgue was meant to cremate and return.

“Just out of curiosity, would you know anyone in the market for a fully in tact, embalmed brain?” the indictment alleges Scott wrote to Pauley in her first Facebook message.

According to the indictment, Scott allegedly sold Pauley fetuses, brains, hearts, lungs, genitalia, big chunks of skin, and other body parts over the course of the following nine months.

At one point, the indictment alleges Scott sold the remains of a fetus at a discount, writing “he’s not in great shape.”

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

After receiving complaints about Pauley last year, Pennsylvanian authorities learned of the plan.

A felony count of receiving stolen property, a misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property, and a felony offense of dealing in proceeds of illicit operations are all brought against Pauley in Pennsylvania. Pauley has been released on bond. His preliminary hearing has been repeatedly postponed, according to court documents, and is now set for June 7.