Arkansas victims of mortuary theft scheme inspire push for law banning sale of human remains

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A year had passed since Doneysha Smith suffered a stillbirth and the memories of her loss lingered in 2023. The cremated remains of her child were kept in a tiny urn in her house and on a necklace she wore, and a memorial service had marked her family's loss with mourners releasing blue, white and yellow balloons into the sky.

But the FBI had reached out to the Arkansas woman with shocking news: The urn and necklace didn't contain her child's ashes and the body had been sold as part of a multistate scheme that bought and sold human remains.

“My son wasn't even able to get to his final resting place,” Smith said during an interview at her home in Sherwood, located outside Little Rock.

Now Smith and her mother are advocating for a new law in Arkansas that would make selling human remains that were supposed to be cremated or buried a felony. The proposal is called Lux's Law, after the name she gave her child. The Senate passed the measure this week and it's pending before a House panel.

Candace Chapman Scott, a former mortuary worker, pleaded guilty in federal court last year to charges that she sold 24 boxes of stolen body parts and fetal remains to a Pennsylvania man for nearly $11,000. The remains included Lux's body.

Scott, who was sentenced last month to 15 years in federal prison, was among several charged in what prosecutors have called a nationwide scheme to steal and sell human body parts from an Arkansas mortuary and Harvard Medical School.

State Sen. Fred Love, a Democrat from Little Rock, said he introduced the measure after speaking with Smith's mother, Lynnell Logan, at a community event and learning there weren't any state laws specifically barring the sale of stolen human remains.

Love said such a law is needed at the state level, noting how the scheme included people in multiple states exchanging messages and pictures on Facebook about the body parts being sold. Love's proposal calls for a fine of up to $10,000 and between three and 10 years in prison for anyone convicted.

“This is another form of trafficking,” Love said. “We must do something to stop it.”

Smith and her mother said the news that Lux's body had been sold and that the ashes they received weren't his reopened wounds. To this day, the family doesn't know whether the ashes they received were human remains, Logan said.

“It was like reliving his passing all over again and then you're thinking about how he was shipped everywhere, and who all handled him,” Logan said. “Who would do this to a baby?”

Only eight states broadly prohibit the sale of human remains, according to Tanya Marsh, a law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law who is an expert in laws regarding human remains.

The Arkansas proposal isn't as broad as those measures since it only applies to bodies that were intended to be cremated or buried. Arkansas already has laws prohibiting the “abuse of a corpse.”

Minnesota last year enacted a law making it a felony to buy and sell human bones, and the lawmaker behind the measure cited examples of oddities shops and websites selling human skulls.

Many people are surprised when they learn that there's a private market for human remains, Marsh said.

“It’s such a shadow area of commerce that most of us don't have exposure to this,” Marsh said.

Lux's remains have been returned to Smith, and his ashes now are in a tiny urn inside a lantern that sits on the mantle.

“When tomorrow starts without me don't think we're far apart for every time you think of me I'm right here in your heart,” the glass door of the lantern read.

Smith also has a gold necklace that contains some of his ashes, and she keeps it on a teddy bear in her bedroom when she's not wearing it. The FBI returned Lux's body to the family the same day as last year's eclipse — something the family views as symbolic.

With the legislation, Smith said her child is living up to the name her family gave him after her stillbirth — Lux Siloam. “Lux” is Latin for “light” and “Siloam” is Greek for “sent.”

“Even after passing away, he is still working and kind of moving things around and shining light on something so dark that people need to be aware of,” Smith said.