NEW YORK—Four men were arrested on Feb. 23 for stealing tissue from corpses without consent, and then falsifying documents to sell the tissues for transplant around the world. The four men, Joseph Nicelli, Michael Mastromarino, Lee Crucetta and Christopher Aldorasi grossed millions in their four years of operation in Brooklyn, announced Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes.
"Each of us has lost a loved one," said Hynes. "Imagine in the aftermath of your grief you learn parts were taken from his or her body and used for transplant."
There are many who would rather not imagine—Anthony Dumaine of Garrison Beach, New York is one of them. His father, Thomas Anthony Dumaine, died of bladder cancer in September 2003.
Only days ago he read in New York's Daily News about the body-snatching ring. When he called detectives he discovered that his father was indeed one of the more than 1,000 bodies illegally harvested for tissue and bone.
"I was really hoping it wasn't true, now it's become a reality. It's so hard to believe," said Dumaine.
Many of those illegally harvested did not meet the age and health requirements for tissue donors. One person who died at age 104 was listed as having died in his 70s.
Dumaine, for example, had never signed a release form to have his father's tissues or bones used for transplant because his father was sick with bladder cancer.
"The outrage is that they falsified the consent forms and falsified the age," said Hynes.
Only one person out of more than 1,000 had signed a consent form to have tissue used for medical purposes.
The Federal Drug Administration has notified hospitals that diseased tissue may have been used in transplants. Hynes believes it will not be difficult connecting people with those who received the transplants.
Dumaine sent his father to Daniel George Funeral Home for funeral services, one of the two funeral homes owned by Joseph Nicelli. According to investigators, Nicelli began his funeral business with the intent to harvest tissue. He teamed up with Mastromarino, a former dentist, to form a tissue trading company, and the two other defendants worked with Nicelli and Mastromarino to remove the body parts.
Nicelli worked with about 30 to 40 other funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Vermont transporting bodies to funeral homes and performing other services, such as embalming. Embalming was done on the first floor of the Brooklyn Daniel George & Son funeral home. Then a mechanical gurney lifted the corpses upstairs to a secret "operating room" where Nicelli and his associates would harvest tissue, including skin, ligaments and bone.
Removed bone was replaced with PVC pipe. Towels and aprons used during the operations were sewn into the corpses to hide the evidence. The deceased were then buried or cremated without their family ever knowing what had occurred.
Investigators believe that neither the funeral homes who subcontracted to Nicelli nor the hospitals who bought the tissue knew about the group's operation.
Investigations started nine months ago when the new owners of Daniel Georgia & Son funeral home noticed inconsistencies in the bookkeeping. What Detective Patricia O'Brien first thought was "a financial problem" quickly unfolded to be a major tissue harvesting ring, the only operation of its kind ever discovered according to investigators.
Mastromarino lost his dentist's license before joining with Nicelli to form their tissue trading company, BioMedical Tissue Services and BioTissue Technologies. The group had plans to expand their operations into Canada, Florida and Pennsylvania.
If the charges against the defendants are proven, they face up to 25 years in prison. The charges include enterprise corruption, body stealing and opening graves.
Dumaine hopes that this case prompts a change in the funeral industry. "It's really a shame that there is no one overseeing what goes on," he said.
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