Prosecutors in New Mexico have dropped fraud charges against Paul Montano, who allegedly shipped parts of bodies donated for medical science to a medical waste facility in Kansas City, Kansas.
But Montano's legal woes don't appear to be over.
Channel 4 in New Mexico reports that prosecutors wanted more time to
build a case against Montano, who owns the New Mexico Learning Center
and BioCare, a
non-profit
that claimed it was collecting bodies and organs for scientific
research.
On March 20, employees of KCK medical waste facility Stericycle discovered a head and a
torso. In the next couple of days, they found more heads and body parts.
A total of seven human heads and about a dozen
other body parts were collected, all sent from Montano's New Mexico Learning Center.
Last week,
KOB reported
that Montano was accused of not being properly licensed with the state
of New Mexico to be "a direct disposer." So he should never had accepted
the body of Johnny Frausto, whose remains were supposed to be cremated
and returned to his family. But Frausto's head and limbs ended up at Stericycle while his torso was at BioCare's Albuquerque
facility.
That'll get you sued, and that's just what
Frausto's widow, Sharon Frausto, is doing.
The story gets worse
for families still waiting for their loved
ones' remains to be returned. According to another New Mexico TV
station, KQRE,
many won't ever get their family member's remains back:
Medical investigators recently finished DNA testing on more than 45 sets
of remains and say they may never identify all of the remains because
of improper storage at BioCare.
...
For weeks doctors have worked every possible angle to identify all the
bodies.
"We have photographed everyone, x-rayed them all, x-rayed any clothing.
We have looked up any serial numbers of any implants that were found. We
have collected DNA samples
on every single one of the specimens," [Office of the Medical Examiner employee Amy] Boule said.
Now that DNA results are back, OMI officials will start matching parts.
Then the remains will be cremated and labeled by their DNA strands in
case families come forward to claim them.
Only 18 bodies have been identified.
