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A worker at a Chicago company that distributes human body parts for medical research has filed a police report after finding three severed heads at his work desk in what he claims was an act of retaliation from job complaints he lodged.
According to People, the disembodied heads were discovered by Dale Wheatley, the transportation coordinator for the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois, on a blue plastic storage tub by his desk.
"At first I was confused," Wheatley told People. "My boss walked by, and I asked him why the heads were at my desk. He said they need to get back with their bodies so we can send them to cremation."
According to Wheatley, who's worked with the company for the past five years, body parts are normally kept in designated storage areas before being retrieved for delivery to medical schools. The remains are later collected and cremated and the ashes are returned to the families.
"I asked him why they were at my desk," Wheatley said. "And he said, 'I don't know Dale, there's a lot of strange things going on.'"
The incident came after Wheatley lodged a complaint last month alleging that donated bodies weren't being properly embalmed or stored, which had resulted in some of them rotting and molding.
"The body goes to waste if it's not properly cared for," Wheatley's lawyer, David Fish, told People.
According to the Chicago Tribune, William O’Connor, executive vice president of the company, denied the allegations and said handling body parts was a part of Wheatley's job.
Wheatley's lawyer said he lodged the complaints at his job as well as with the Cook County Medical Examiner and the Illinois Department of Public Health in hopes of improved care for the bodies.
"He in general felt the facility needs to be improved," Fish said on behalf of Wheatley. "They need to treat the donors with more respect."
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