Dealing the Dead: The Unclaimed Bodies of Migrants and the US Body Industry
Aurimar’s Story: A Mother’s Ordeal
Every day for two seemingly endless months, Arelis Coromoto Villegas repeated the same prayer: From her small, cinder-block home in Venezuela, she asked God to protect her 21-year-old daughter as she trekked thousands of miles through treacherous jungle and desert terrain to reach America’s southern border.
A Mother’s Desperation
Aurimar hoped to lift her family out of poverty. (Courtesy Arelis Coromoto Villegas)
Her prayers were answered in September 2022 when Aurimar crossed safely into the U.S. and continued north with her own prayer — to land a job and eventually earn enough money to help her mother build a new house.
A Tragic Turn of Events
But within two months of her arrival in Texas, Aurimar was dead, shot in a road rage incident near Dallas as she sat in the back seat of a car.
A Mother’s Nightmare
And then, for her mother, the unthinkable somehow became the unimaginable.
Without her family’s knowledge, county authorities donated Aurimar’s body to a local medical school, where officials cut it up and assigned dollar figures to parts that hadn’t been damaged by the bullet that struck her head — $900 for her torso, $703 for her legs.
Remnants of a Life
Remnants of Aurimar’s body were cremated and buried in a field among strangers in a Dallas cemetery, all while her mother desperately sought to have her murdered daughter returned to Venezuela, unaware her body had become a commodity in the name of science.
A Family’s Quest for Answers
Arelis only learned her daughter had been used for research two years after her death, when NBC News and Noticias Telemundo published the names of hundreds of people whose unclaimed bodies were sent to the Fort Worth-based University of North Texas Health Science Center.
The Pattern of Abuse
What happened to Aurimar was a matter of money, part of a pattern NBC News uncovered over the past two years: Across the United States, vulnerable people’s bodies often are mistreated and their families’ wishes disregarded as overwhelmed local officials grapple with rising numbers of unclaimed dead amid widespread opioid addiction, surging homelessness, and increasingly fractured families.
The University of North Texas Health Science Center
The University of North Texas Health Science Center dissected, studied, and leased out hundreds of unclaimed bodies. (Shelby Tauber for NBC News)
Aurimar was one of about 2,350 people whose bodies were sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center since 2019 under agreements with two local counties, which helped the center bring in about $2.5 million a year and saved the counties hundreds of thousands of dollars in cremation and burial costs, according to financial records.
The Lives of the Unclaimed
The lives of the unclaimed are often marked by tragedy, poverty, and isolation. Reporters have identified two dozen other cases in which families learned weeks, months, or years later that a relative’s body had been provided to the Health Science Center. Eleven of those families only learned what happened from NBC News and Noticias Telemundo — including five, in addition to Aurimar’s loved ones, who were horrified to find their relative’s name on the list of unclaimed bodies published by the news outlets this fall.
Conclusion
The use of unclaimed bodies for research is a complex issue, with some arguing that it is a necessary step in advancing medical knowledge and others claiming that it is an unacceptable exploitation of the vulnerable. The cases uncovered by NBC News and Noticias Telemundo raise important questions about the treatment of the dead and the rights of their families.
FAQs
Q: What happened to Aurimar’s body after she died?
Aurimar’s body was donated to a local medical school, where it was cut up and assigned dollar figures to parts that hadn’t been damaged by the bullet that struck her head.
Q: Why were Aurimar’s family members not informed of her death?
Aurimar’s family members were not informed of her death and were not involved in the decision to donate her body to a medical school.
Q: What was the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s role in the use of unclaimed bodies?
The University of North Texas Health Science Center received over 2,350 unclaimed bodies since 2019, including Aurimar’s, under agreements with local counties. The center used these bodies for student training and research.
Q: What was the purpose of the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s body donation program?
The University of North Texas Health Science Center’s body donation program was designed to provide training and research opportunities for students and researchers. The program received funding from local counties and generated revenue through the sale of human remains to medical technology companies.
Q: What were the consequences for those involved in the use of unclaimed bodies?
Several officials involved in the use of unclaimed bodies were fired, and the University of North Texas Health Science Center suspended its body donation program.
