The body of a 98-year-old man who died of COVID-19 was dissected in front of a paying audience inside a downtown Portland hotel last month – after his wife thought she did donation of his body to science.

Seventy people gathered in a meeting room at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront – some paying up to $ 500 a ticket – to attend the autopsy of David Saunders, who lived in Louisiana with his wife, 92, until ‘upon his death from the coronavirus.

Kimberly DiLeo, chief forensic death investigator for Multnomah County, said she contacted the Portland Police Department and the Oregon Medical Board ahead of the Oct. 17 event to warn them of the potentially illegal autopsy.

Weeks later, county officials are reviewing the laws to see if any have been broken.

DiLeo said the way Saunders’ body was treated could be considered body abuse, a Class B felony in Oregon.

But Lt. Nathan Sheppard, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Department, said detectives consulted with the Oregon Department of Justice, Oregon State Police and the County Attorney’s Office. Multnomah and determined that no crime had been committed during the autopsy.

He said civil laws may have been violated, including those that prohibit certain post-mortem examinations of bodies and place restrictions on the disposal of unclaimed bodies.

Only individuals, and not government agencies, can bring a civil complaint.

DiLeo said that in her 20 years working as a death investigator, she had never seen anything like it.

“It’s devastating for families,” DiLeo told The Oregonian / OregonLive. “In addition to mourning the deaths of their loved ones, they have to face the fact that their loved one has been desecrated, and it is the last memory they have.”

A WOMAN’S BODY WOULD BE USED FOR RESEARCH

When Saunders’ wife donated her husband’s body to Med Ed Labs, she recalls being told the Las Vegas-based company would use her body for research and return her cremated remains in an urn.

She had no idea that her body would end up being dissected in a hotel in front of a paying audience, DiLeo said.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s horrible, unethical, and I just don’t have the words to describe it,” Elsie Saunders, wife of David Saunders, told The Advocate newspaper, based in Baton Rouge. “I have all these papers that say his body would be used for science – nothing about this commercialization of his death.”

But media company Death Science bought Saunders’ body from Med Ed Labs for use in a “Cadaver Lab Class” held during the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, an annual traveling event for “lovers of the weird,” the unusual and the bizarre “.

The Portland event was originally scheduled to be held at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel near the Oregon Convention Center, DiLeo said, but hotel staff canceled the event after she called them.

The venue was then changed to the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel, which hosted the event despite DiLeo’s concerns, she said.

Death Science founder Jeremy Ciliberto said in a statement Wednesday that he purchased Saunders’ body from Med Ed Labs, who told him the company had performed a serological test on the body to rule out any infectious disease.

But he said Med Ed Labs – which solicits whole body donations, allegedly to train healthcare workers, the military and law enforcement – did not tell him Saunders had died of COVID-19.

DiLeo said Saunders’ COVID-19 diagnosis could have put anyone close to his body at risk, as viral genetic material can be present on a body weeks or more after death.

Greg Clark, the owner of a Baton Rouge funeral home who treated Saunders’ body before it was donated to Med Ed Labs, said his staff were shocked by what had happened.

“We are extremely saddened by the loss of the widow and what she is going through,” Clark told The Oregonian / OregonLive on Tuesday. He declined to comment further.

Ciliberto apologized for the “undue stress” caused by the event to Saunders’ family and said Death Science would no longer work with Med Ed Labs.

“Death Science is currently conducting an internal review to create more robust verification processes when partnering with future companies and organizations,” Ciliberto said.

He said that while Death Science helped organize, promote, and sell tickets for the event, Med Ed Labs sold the corpse, provided the anatomist, and secured the venue.

Hotel staff were also aware of the planned autopsy, Ciliberto said, and they helped move the corpse and position the operating table, lighting and seats on the day of the event.

Martin McAllister, general manager of the hotel, contradicted Ciliberto’s version of events in a statement Thursday.

“Our hotel team was grossly misled by the guest about the nature of this event,” said McAllister. “We understand the public concerns regarding the activities that have taken place and are reviewing our process for verifying requests for medical event information in light of this situation.”

Med Ed Labs did not provide a comment to The Oregonian / OregonLive, and Oddities and Curiosities Expo did not respond to a request for comment.

A second cadaver lab class scheduled for Halloween in Seattle was reportedly canceled before it could take place.

BODY MISHANDLED, SAYS AN OFFICIAL

DiLeo said Saunders’ body was abused on the day of his autopsy.

Anyone interacting with a body during an autopsy or a death investigation must wear personal protective equipment, including a medical gown, face shield, goggles and gloves, DiLeo said.

But in a video taken at the Portland event by KING-TV, which first reported on the event and the fallout that followed, a person wearing only gloves up to the wrist, a face mask and glasses can be seen manipulating Saunders’ body. Participants are shown gathering tightly around the operating table, and one participant wearing only rubber gloves and a face mask is shown hunched over and touching the corpse.

DiLeo also said autopsies and death investigations should be performed by people with valid licenses or certifications.

And Dr. Colin Henderson, a retired professor of anatomy at the University of Montana who performed the autopsy, does not have an active license to practice medicine in Oregon, according to the Oregon website. Medical Board.

DiLeo said she was also unaware of how Ciliberto, who has no professional background in medicine or death investigations, was allowed to purchase the body from Med Ed Labs.

Ciliberto – who has a podcast and YouTube and TikTok channels dedicated to his interest in the “science of death” – said the Cadaver Lab class was meant to be “educational” and increase interest in science, technology, engineering and medical professions.

But DiLeo said the event was damaging to the scientific community and to Saunders’ wife, who asked Med Ed Labs to return her husband’s body to Louisiana instead of cremating him because she no longer believes that the company will send him the correct leftovers.

DiLeo said Multnomah County officials would work to enact legislation that would prevent similar events from happening if current laws are inadequate.

“It’s very difficult for families,” she says. “It discourages people from donating their bodies to science, and it can also give them a lack of confidence in the profession of death investigator.”

– Catalina Gaitán; find them on Twitter @catalinagaitan_