BANGKOK
A Thai court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for two Americans who allegedly tried to mail human body parts, including a baby’s head and foot, to the U.S., local media reported.
Warrants were issued by the Bangkok South Criminal Court after Ryan Edward McPherson, 31, and Daniel Tanner, 33, were charged with theft and making false declarations on shipping documents, according to the Matichon news website.
The two left Thailand on Sunday and are believed to be in Cambodia. Thai police are liaising with colleagues in Cambodia, Interpol has been alerted and the FBI is cooperating in the U.S.
The bizarre case emerged on Saturday when DHL employees x-rayed three parcels destined for Las Vegas, Nevada. The parcels were labelled as containing “toys” but when staff opened the packages they found body parts stored in acrylic boxes filled with formaldehyde.
The gruesome contents included a baby’s head, a baby’s foot cut into three pieces, a human heart with stab wounds and two sections of tattooed skin.
McPherson and Tanner, who have been linked to the production of ‘Bumfights’ videos in the U.S. more than a decade ago in which homeless people fought and performed dangerous stunts, were interrogated on Saturday evening by police and claimed they had bought the human parts at a Bangkok flea market.
They told police they wanted to send the items to friends to “surprise them.” They were released and crossed the Thai-Cambodian border on Sunday morning.
The following day it was revealed human body specimens had been stolen from two medical museums at Siriraj hospital, Bangkok.
CCTV footage from the museums showed McPherson and Tanner had visited the museum Thursday, although the date of the theft is unknown and the footage does not show them carrying any packages, according to Dr Udom Kachintorn, dean of the faculty of medicine.
Theft carries a one- to five-year jail term in Thailand, or a fine of up to 10,000 baht ($300) while making a false declaration is punished with six months imprisonment or a 500,000 baht fine.
Siriraj medical museum includes exhibits such as the mummified corpses of serial rapists and cannibals, jars containing formaldehyde-preserved fetuses and the bodies of deformed children.
www.aa.com.tr/en
