If you're easily disturbed, you may want
to turn away because these dozens of
accounts are part of a thriving and
chilling trade. From skulls to wallets
made of skin, the sale of human remains
advertised online, delivered straight to
your door. So, we were able to order
some bones. I find it quite unnerving,
quite upsetting really to think about
what's inside here,
but this is what's being sold online.
So, let's take a look.
It's a very macob experience. Okay,
we have a handwritten note of what's
inside.
And it says that we've got a rib,
vertebrae,
a kneecap there, a finger bone, and a
clavicle.
Um, no explanation about where these
have come from or who they were or when
they're from. Uh,
and it's really
strange to think these were people.
Now they're being sent in the post. So,
where are these body parts coming from?
Some are ex-medical skeletons, but
others are far less ethical. This church
crypt in Kent has stored skulls and
bones for hundreds of years. Now it has
a double lock system and high-tech
security alarm.
>> So you've got pretty hefty security
these days.
>> Yeah, sadly it's necessary.
>> Necessary after the front door was
smashed in during a robbery.
>> 21 skulls had been removed from the
shells down there and naturally that
caused great concern because it's
tantamount to graveing. These are human
mortal remains. What do you think about
this trade in in human remains
potentially including skulls taken from
here?
>> I think it's um fairly reprehensible
indeed and certainly most people around
here they would never believe that such
a thing were possible and it wasn't
until we made some investigations that
we realized that yes indeed there is a
trade.
>> What is the difference between bones
being displayed here compared with say
in someone's living room? The principal
difference I suppose is that this is
holy ground. This is within church
property. And for them they would never
imagine I would think that they would be
used as ornaments or items of curiosity.
>> They were grizzly transactions all in
the name of profit.
>> As well as graverobing. Much of the
human skin available was likely stolen
from the morg at the Harvard Medical
School. The human remains trade is a
multi-million pound industry. A skull
starts at around £400.
A child's skull is nearly 10 times more,
while a wallet made of human skin is
around £6,000.
It used to be incredibly difficult to
buy body parts, but thanks to social
media, sales have risen by around 500%
in recent years. BO is a group of
academics and experts aiming to stop the
>> Currently,
selling human remains is legal.
>> Yeah, you can you can do that. Yes.
which is a terrible thing to say and
seems awful and I think everyone would
be very shocked to think that that is
something that is possible to do because
I think everybody would think that there
are regulations in place to prevent that
and that that shouldn't be able to
happen and that there are other
regulations in place in terms of maybe
animals that are far more stringent. So
in essence, it is illegal to sell, say,
ivory, but it's perfectly legal to
possess and then sell human remains.
>> Yes. Sadly, that that's the situation
that that we're in, and that's what
seems so ridiculous really.
>> What do we think people are using these
human remains for?
>> Could be different things like ritual or
magic. Somebody may just have an
interest in it. They may see them as
artistic. You dread to think sometimes
maybe what some of the things are not
being used for. And and that's what's so
terribly sad is that they never
envisioned anything like that happening
to them.
>> We've identified more than 80 accounts
selling human remains. Some are death
influencers with tens of thousands of
followers. We spoke to some of the
sellers. Few could say where the body
parts came from. We asked one if they
had any bones available. The answer, I
have tons, lol. Another seller tried to
haggle the price of a human foot. A
third said their remains were taken from
cemeteries and vague lost and trashed
places.
Patrick's a journalist who's been
investigating the trade for years.
>> People are buying everything and
everyone.
There are the remains of adults, the
elderly, children, babies, fetuses,
covering almost every different ethnic
group. There are human remains that have
clearly come out of the ground at some
point. Um, there are body snatched
specimens, so specimens that have come
from from graves.
>> We took the bones we ordered to a
forensic expert to find out more. So the
obvious first question is, are these
actually real? Are they human bones?
>> These are definitely real human remains.
This one, this longer one is a right
rib. Um, and it's from an adult
individual.
We have this bone, which is a vertebra.
Here you have two holes, which tells me
there was a wire going through. We see
this in many of our teaching anatomical
um, human remains that we have. I would
say that the appearance of these bones,
the completeness, the preservation, the
holes on the vertebrae are more
consistent with what we would call
anatomical teaching human remains.
>> These are some of the skulls we found
advertised for sale online at the
moment. We've got one here which
claims to be
uh the skull of someone attacked with a
hammer.
Looking at the photos, would would you
believe that to be the case?
>> What does strike me is that the fracture
pattern that you see is consistent with
what we call permortim trauma. Permortem
trauma is trauma around the time of
death. This is seems to be a violent
related trauma in my experience. So
potentially yes, it could be from a a
murder victim. It seems to have been
autopsied, which is what I would expect.
So again, interesting to see where these
come from. Some sellers do consider
stolen bodies to be immoral, but even
exmedical skeletons pose serious ethical
questions. Donating a body to a hospital
is not the same as agreeing to be
displayed at someone's home. And many,
especially from the Victorian era, were
also stolen from graves. The remains of
people who never expected that in
afterlife they'd be sold by dealers in
death.
Well, Sam, this will be a surprise to
many. Um, legally a gray area. Why isn't
it regulated?
>> It sort of falls through the gaps of
different laws, but essentially there's
nothing that bans the buying and selling
of human remains except for transplants.
That isn't allowed. But when it comes to
graverobing,
the actions of disturbing a grave and
exuming bones without permission, those
are illegal. Those are crimes. But
there's nothing specific about what
happens to those bones afterwards. And
we've seen a massive increase in the
trade, possibly by around 500% over the
past 5 years, in part thanks to this
loophole and due to the rise in social
media.
>> And Sam, the bones that you managed to
buy, what will become of those?
>> So, just as when a construction site
accidentally uncovers human remains,
we'll be handing them over to an
archaeologist who will either place them
in a museum or reberry them.