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Sale of Human Nails Being Investigated

Posted on: Thursday, 27 February 2003, 06:00 CST

Sale of Human Nails Being Investigated

source: Associated Press Top Strange News

HOUSTON - A man who supervised the donated-body program at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston allegedly pocketed more than $18,000 from selling nails from the fingers and toes of cadavers, a newspaper said.

Allen Tyler Jr. supervised the school's Willed Body Program for 36 years until he was fired May 9.

The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that newly released records showed Tyler received at least $18,210 from Watson Laboratories Inc. of Salt Lake City for the sale of hundreds of human fingernails and toenails between November 1999 and August 2001. The nails were used to test experimental medicines.

Officials have closed the Willed Body Program indefinitely.

Federal law prohibits profiting from the sale of human bodies and the FBI is investigating, said agency spokesman Bob Doguim. No one has been charged.

Tyler declined to comment on the report when The Associated Press contacted him Thursday at his Galveston home. He has so far refused to talk to investigators, the Chronicle reported.

A purchasing agent at the laboratory, Shirley Krouse, confirmed that the company issued checks directly to Tyler for shipments of toenails and fingernails the company used in research, the newspaper reported. Krouse said officials at the lab believed Tyler turned the money over to the school.

In one transaction, Tyler received $4,005 for 232 fingernails at $15 each and 35 toenails at $15 each, according to Tyler's records.

The newspaper said Tyler also received at least $56,000 in direct payments from a New Jersey company.

Officials said they also learned that Tyler had allowed the ashes of dozens of cremated donated bodies to be mixed, making it impossible to return ashes to donors' families. After the medical center informed the families involved, relatives of several body donors sued Tyler and the school. Those lawsuits are pending.

The university had refused last year to grant the Chronicle access to thousands of documents associated with the Willed Body Program, the newspaper said. The Texas attorney general's office issued an opinion saying the school should turn over the records. The school appealed to a state district court but dropped the appeal last week.

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