Body Snatchers of New York

A few weeks ago I received a message that I was to contact a certain Detective O'Brien from the NYPD.

A little nervously - was I in trouble with the New York police? - I got in touch with Detective O'Brien, by both e-mail and telephone.

She began by saying she wanted to ask me some questions about my sister's death, which occurred in New York in June 2003. I had signed the death certificate. Had I signed anything else pertaining to the disposal of my sister's remains? No, I didn't think so. Had someone called “David Kenny”, purporting to be my sister's husband, signed any official papers? No, my sister's former husband had a Hungarian name, and there was no David in our direct family. Was there a family apartment at East 88th Street? No, nothing at that address.

“Is there a problem?” I asked the detective, who, as it happens turns out to be originally from Listowel, and is a good friend of the John B. Keane family there.

Yes, Pat O'Brien said, there certainly was. The funeral home which my sister had chosen for her cremation - Daniel George & Son of Brooklyn - was to be indicted for the illegal trading in human remains. Forged papers pertaining to my sister's remains - signed by the fictional “David Kenny” - had been uncovered. These documents had allegedly given permission for my sister's body to be used in medical transplants. Parts of her body could well have been sold off for transplants, possibly in Russia.

Body parts - especially skin, bones and ligaments - are much in demand in the international exchange of this macabre trade. The longer bones in human legs are particularly welcome among the harvesters of human corpses.

Detective O'Brien gave me a lot more information about the case, which has now been reported extensively in the New York media. The two persons at the centre of the case are, firstly, Michael Mastromarino, a dental surgeon from Fort Lee, New Jersey, aged 43, who has made a considerable fortune in what is now called the biomedical business. That is, the transplantation of human tissue and body parts.

His partner is Joseph Nicelli, aged 50, who owned the Brooklyn funeral home chosen for my sister's cremation.

There are two other men, known as “cutters” - they apparently dismembered the corpses - also associated with the case.

The operation first came to light a couple of years when the funeral home was sold, and the new owners uncovered some suspicious evidence. The NYPD also received a complaint from a bereaved person who thought that there was something irregular about procedures.

Now that I think back on it, it would have been easy for the body snatchers of New York to carry out this crime. My sister's request was for a cremation - and, indeed, as economically as possible, since she didn't think the cremation process itself significant. Afterwards there was be a Requiem Mass in New York, and a gathering for her friends; and her ashes were to be scattered over Sandymount Strand in Dublin. That was far more important to her than the actual cremation.

I acted according to her wishes. The funeral home employees came and removed the corpse about two hours after dear Ursula departed this world. Three days later, a box of ashes were delivered back to me in New York. And presently, family and friends scattered her ashes over Sandymount Strand - though I retained some to keep in an urn in my flat.

Many of the other families involved in this scam have been very distressed by this story. It's been called “obscene” and “wicked” on CNN. People feel that the corpses of their loved ones have been desecrated.

“But to be honest,” I told Detective O'Brien, “I don't think that Ursula would have minded. If she had been asked, I think she'd have given permission for her remains to be used in medical transplants.”

Maybe so, said Detective O'Brien: but no permission was sought. And it's illegal to take the bodies of dead people secretly, dismember them, and sell them on for profit. Moreover, if a patient has had cancer, it could be dangerous.

There was an interesting post-script, and an intriguing coincidence, involved with this strange saga. Before Joseph Nicelli could stand for trial, he had a serious fall at a New York construction site, suffered a critical skull fracture and injury to his eyes. It is not certain that he will recover sufficiently to participate in the trial.

Bad luck or bad karma?

A curious coincidence also occurred. Detective O'Brien also investigated the case, in December 2005, of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose body had been removed before cremation by bodysnatchers working for a tissue-recovery firm.

Ursula worked with Alistair Cooke at the BBC in New York, and for ten years of his broadcasting life, she was his radio producer.

Strange synchronicity.

I don't, as I say, feel that my sister would have been distressed by this peculiar turn of events. She would have been intrigued. But there is one disturbing question for me: are the remaining ashes that I have in an urn on the mantelpiece those of my sister at all?

Irish Independent. 27 January 2007.