A Colorado woman has been charged for attempting to sell three fetuses and a fetal skeleton from the 1920s online. She was charged under the US prohibition of transfer of human fetal tissue law, according to reports.
Officials said Emily Suzanne Cain tried to sell bodies of decades-old stillborn infants in 2018. Investigation revealed that she acquired the specimens from a university lab collection and had posted about selling them for $20,000 on Facebook.
The incident came to light after a mail package from Canon City in Colorado addressed to the United Kingdom labelled "school teaching aids and T-shirts," caught the notice of authorities.
The package was flagged by US Postal Service workers due to its non-approval from the customs that certified the content did not contain dangerous items, an official statement in court records accessed by the Associated Press revealed.
According to an X-ray conducted by the customs officials at the San Francisco International Airport, the package appeared to contain human-shaped remains.
Further evidence of Cain's involvement was found including her prints, reports said. Business cards labelled as "McGinty's Fine Oddities" were also found, reported ABC 10.
The investigators found that the specimens belonged to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. While the university's policy states that such specimens are neither cremated or sold, Cain's post on her social media page revealed that she received the specimens from "a female friend".
Reports stated that the Cain described the acquired the specimens from a female professor who "is the head of the biomed department for a university who is downsizing and recently picked them up in a U-Haul trailer." The university stated that it is cooperating in the investigation.
The thirty-eight-year-old woman pleaded not guilty of charges on Tuesday. She was first arrested in Fort Collins and released on a $5,000 bond with an ankle monitor. The hearing of the case has been pushed to November 20 in US District Court in San Francisco.
