U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam | U.S. Department of Justice
A Kansas man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his involvement in the theft and sale of human remains. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann handed down the sentence to Angelo Pereyra, 39, from Wichita, Kansas. Pereyra was convicted of interstate transport of stolen human remains and body parts.
United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam stated that Pereyra admitted guilt after pleading guilty to a Criminal Information. Between 2018 and 2022, while employed as a pathology assistant at a Kansas hospital, Pereyra stole organs and body parts including hearts, brains, spleens, testicles, intestines, livers, amputated feet and toes. Some specimens were taken from deceased individuals while others came from living patients. He also took corpses of miscarried and stillborn fetuses before they could be buried properly.
Pereyra sold these stolen specimens to Andrew Ensanian in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. He shipped them using the U.S. Postal Service from Kansas to Pennsylvania. Ensanian has also pleaded guilty to the same charges and is awaiting sentencing.
This case is part of a broader investigation into nationwide trafficking of stolen human remains. Several defendants have been charged in the Middle District of Pennsylvania with five having entered guilty pleas so far. Another defendant was charged and convicted in Arkansas.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service with Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni prosecuting the case.
