Arkansas woman accused in multi-state body-part-selling case changes plea
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Little Rock woman named in a multi-state body-parts-selling case changed her pleading to guilty Thursday in federal court.
Court records show Candace Chapman Scott pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and interstate transport of stolen property before Judge Brian Miller in the Eastern District of Arkansas court. These were two of the 12 counts listed against Scott related to her selling body parts sent to her Little Rock mortuary services employer for cremation.
As part of Scott’s Thursday pleading, prosecutors agreed to dismiss nine counts of the indictment for wire fraud, mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property and allow her to remain free on bond pending her sentencing hearing.
The charging affidavit states that beginning in 2021, Scott would pick up human remains from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences cadaver lab to take to her employer, who would then cremate the remains and return them to the school. Instead, it continues, Scott would intercept body parts before they would reach the funeral home, then sell them to 41-year-old Jeremy Pauley of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, someone she met on an “Oddities” Facebook group.
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Scott’s indictment showed she had collected $10,975 from Pauley in 16 separate sales of human remains through 2022. The sales included organs, as well as two sets of fetal remains that were supposed to be cremated and returned to the parents.
Pauley pleaded guilty in Pennsylvania federal court to conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods in September 2023 for his role in transporting stolen body parts. He received a sentence of two years probation.
Body parts sold online were donated to research, Arkansas hospital says
A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said Scott is facing up to 20 years for mail fraud and 10 years for transporting stolen property, with fines of up to $250,000 for each count. The minimum sentence for each count is three years probation.
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