Tina Shannon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, “I have worn many masks to cover up the pain. I will never recover.”
It is illegal to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys, and tendons for transplant in the United States; They should be donated. But selling body parts such as heads, arms and spines—which Hayes did—is not regulated by federal law for use in research or education.
Prosecutors said Hayes committed the crimes when he defrauded relatives of the deceased by lying about cremation and dissecting bodies and selling them without permission. Prosecutors said that surgical-training companies and other firms that bought arms, legs, heads and torsos from Hayes did not know they had been fraudulently obtained.
At his funeral home, Hayes charged families up to $1,000 for cremations, prosecutors said, and he offered free cremations to others in exchange for body donations.
Prosecutors said he lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins with the remains of different bodies.