‘HE’S HOME’

‘Butchered’ Body of COVID Victim Dissected at Pay-Per-View Event Finally Returned to Family

The family of David Saunders said they never gave permission for his body to be dissected at an “Oddities and Curiosities Expo” in Oregon.

A COVID-19 victim dissected in front of a paying audience without his family’s knowledge or consent has been returned to relatives in Louisiana. The body of David Saunders, a 98-year-old veteran, was flown into New Orleans in a flag-draped casket over the weekend. That Saunders was autopsied in a Portland Marriott hotel ballroom last month as a part of the traveling “Oddities and Curiosities Expo” was revealed by a KING 5 investigation. His family thought his body had been donated to medical science. However, a body broker sold the remains on to the event’s organizers, which hawked tickets for up to $500.

“To see a loved one—I wouldn’t say ‘dismembered,’ but ‘butchered’ in that context, from every part of the body is just—it sickens me,” Saunders’ grand-nephew Harold Adkins told KING 5. Adkins, wary of being misled again, elected to go to the mortuary to view and positively identify his relative’s body on Monday morning. “We’re glad he’s home,” he said. “And we look forward to the proper burial, cremation, and memorial service so we can honor this man’s life.”