Cadaver Dealer's Wife Pleads Guilty in Dead-Body Scheme, Assists Prosecutors

By BETH DALBEY (Patch Staff)

A Michigan woman who sold black market body parts allegedly obtained from Illinois businesses — some of them positive for HIV, hepatitis and infectious diseases — pleaded guilty Monday to federal wire charges.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Elizabeth Rathburn, 56, faces four to 10 months in prison under the plea agreement before U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, who ordered restitution of $55,225.83.

She will be sentenced on July 18, and she could get a better deal for cooperating with prosecutors.

Rathburn and her husband, Arthur Rathburn, 62, the owners and operators of International Biological Inc., were accused in a 13-count indictment unsealed in January of renting diseased body parts, including heads and torsos, for medical and dental training, according to prosecutors.

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International Biological Inc. allegedly bought body parts from Biological Resource Center of Rosemont and Anatomical Services of Schiller Park, two sister businesses owned by the same people. Those businesses allegedly received the body parts from Biological Resource Center of Arizona.

Federal investigators raided the Rosemont and Schiller Park businesses in January 2015 in search of evidence that the companies illegally sold body parts. Thousands of body parts and tissue samples that were part of the alleged illegal black market ring were found in the raids, according to ABC7 Chicago.

Stephen Gore, the owner of the Arizona company, pleaded guilty in October 2015 to a felony charge in connection with the donation mishandling, according to ABC15 Arizona, but no charges have been filed against the owners of the Illinois businesses.

The multi-state body business was lucrative for the Rathburns, according to court documents. A human body can fetch anywhere from $10,000 to up to $100,000 if it’s parceled out. Brains, for example, go for $600. Elbows and hands go for $850.

In a statement, McQuade’s office said the Rathburns “knew that the donors of a number of these bodies had died of an infectious disease, or that the bodies had tested positive for an infectious disease,” despite knowing that medical and dental schools reject such remains.

The Rathburns often obtained the infectious body parts and remains at reduced costs, then represented them as free of certain diseases, the government said.

“The scheme included directly profiting from infectious remains supplied to unwitting customers in violation of contractual agreements and failing to disclose to customers that IBI ignored industry standard precautions to prevent potential cross-contamination between infectious and non-infectious remains,” according to the statement.

Elizabeth Rathburn, who is divorcing her husband, is expected to cooperate with authorities in his prosecution. The case against Arthur Rathburn is pending.

“She will assist the government with any knowledge that she has,” her defense attorney, Jeremy Henner, told The Detroit News. “Her life has been ruined largely in part because of her association with Mr. Rathburn.”

Arthur Rathburn is charged with nine counts of wire fraud in the indictment and faces 20 years in prison on each. He also faces five years in prison on a charge of transporting hazardous material and five years in prison on each of three counts of making false statements.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Arthur Rathburn packaged seven human heads, including one of an individual who died of bacterial sepsis and aspiration pneumonia, in trash bags placed in camping coolers and shipped them via Delta Cargo, in violation of federal rules.

“This alleged scheme to distribute diseased body parts not only defrauded customers from the monetary value of their contracts, but also exposed them and others to infection,” McQuade said in the statement earlier this year. “The alleged conduct risked the health of medical students, dental students and baggage handlers.”

Arthur Rathburn, whose mortuary license was suspended by the state of Michigan two years ago, allegedly lied about the heads, claiming the heads weren’t infectious or hazardous, that they had been embalmed and that the blood found in the coolers was actually mouthwash.

The indictments followed a December 2013 raid on the couple’s home and business and the seizure of thousands of human body parts and boxes of records.

The investigation spanned Michigan, Illinois and Arizona.

Photo via shutterstock.