US tourist tries to mail body parts

A parcel delivery company in Thailand put three packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery - inside were preserved human body parts, including an infant's head, a baby's foot and an adult heart.

The company, DHL, alerted police, who tracked down the sender, a 31-year-old tourist from the US. He said he found the items at a Bangkok night market, said Chumpol Poompuang, a police colonel.

"He said he thought the body parts were bizarre and wanted to send them to his friends in the US," Chumpol said, adding that the man was questioned for several hours and released without charge.

The parts, some packed in a parcel marked "antique train set collection", were found in containers filled with formaldehyde solution, similar to those used to preserve corpses - some dissected or mutilated - at Bangkok's Siriraj Medical Museum.

The packages were addressed to Las Vegas, Nevada, prompting Thai police to ask the FBI for help to check the destination, deputy national police chief Ruangsak Jritake told reporters.

"The initial assumption is that the body parts were probably stolen as the museum said some items were missing from an exhibition room," he added.

Chumpol had earlier said a baby's heart and intestines were among the body parts. However, police at a news conference later in the day said the heart, which had been stabbed, was from an adult, and there were no preserved intestines.

Police Lieutenant General Ruangsak Jarit-ake told reporters the parts were preserved separately in formaldehyde inside sealed acrylic or plastic boxes.

AP - AFP

(China Daily 11/18/2014 page12)