A grieving mother is devastated after learning that a Texas county secretly donated her daughter’s body to science and dismembered and sold her parts.
Aurimar Hurriago Villegas, 21, was riding in the back of a car with two acquaintances in a Dallas suburb on Oct. 29, 2022, when 25-year-old Shardrel Webb fired a gun at the back of the car. NBC News reports.
Paramedics later found her slumped in the back seat, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.
But without permission from Villegas’ family, county officials donated her body to the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
She subsequently became one of 2,350 individuals whose remains were sent to the Fort-Worth school under an agreement with two Texas counties to be used for scientific research, medical education and profit through the Willed Body Program.
Under the deal, any bodies declared “unclaimed” could be sent to the school, even though provincial coroners, medical facilities and others have repeatedly failed to contact family members before declaring the bodies “unclaimed.”
For Villegas, this meant her body was cut into pieces and the parts not damaged by the gunshot wound were awarded monetary awards, including $900 for her torso and $703 for her legs.
Other remains were cremated and buried in a field next to strangers in Dallas, while Villegas’ mother, Arelis Coromoto Villegas, fought desperately to get her daughter’s body back to Venezuela – not knowing what had happened.
Aurimar Hurriago Villegas, 21, died Oct. 29 from a single gunshot wound to the head
Her family fought for years to get her body to Venezuela, without realizing her body was declared “unclaimed” and sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
Aurimar had entered the United States in September 2022 and had been in constant contact with her mother since then.
The two even spoke just hours before Aurimar’s death, but NBC News reports that Arelis was not immediately notified of her daughter’s death — even though the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office had her phone number on file.
Instead, she heard about her daughter’s murder from Aurimar’s younger sister, Auribel Acero Villegas, who was only 17, and had spoken to a neighbor in Venezuela who knew Alexis Moreno – another neighbor with whom Aurimar had lived.
A day later, Auribel said she spoke briefly with someone she believed worked at the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The person on the other end of the line asked permission to use Moreno as the primary point of contact for the family, which she agreed to.
“As far as the conversation went,” Auribel said.
But Aurimar’s file contained no mention of such a call.
Aurimar had entered the United States in September 2022 and had been in constant communication with her mother since then, even speaking to her several hours before her death.
Instead, from a message dated Oct. 31 — two days after Aurimar’s death — a county official reported a face-to-face meeting with Moreno and a conversation with Arelis on Moreno’s cell phone.
It alleged that Arelis granted Moreno the authority to act as Aurimar’s legal next of kin – which Arelis told Noticias Telemundo never happened.
She insisted she only wanted Moreno’s help to coordinate her daughter’s return to Venezuela.
Then, without Arelis having to sign anything, a county employee updated Aurimar’s file to list Moreno as her official next of kin in the county’s system — a move that gave him authority over what could be done with her body done, while possibly excluding her mother. .
The district employee wrote Arelis’ number in the file, but there is no indication that anyone in the office tried to contact her over the next two years, as the grieving mother, her family and friends launched a fundraising campaign to recover the remains of to send Aurimar home.
Because no one had made arrangements for Aurimar’s body, it was “now considered abandoned,” according to a letter sent on December 15, 2022.
Any efforts to gather details of Aurimar’s death and claim her body were complicated by the fact that while Arelis could make and receive calls via WhatsApp, she could not afford to call landlines in the United States to call.
But two and a half weeks after her death, Moreno wrote a letter to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, offering to donate her body to the program on her mother’s behalf — despite Arelis insisting she had never agreed to do so. agreed.
Tyler Johnson, the assistant manager of the center’s body donation program, responded the next day in Spanish, “First I need to confirm that you and the mother understand body donation.”
When Moreno subsequently confirmed he wanted to proceed, Johnson sent a donor consent form and gave him an eight-hour deadline to return it.
Moreno never returned the paperwork, and soon, Aurimar’s family said, he stopped answering their messages, too.
Under an agreement with two Texas counties, any bodies declared “unclaimed” can be sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center to be used for scientific research, medical education and profit through the Willed Body Program.
Aurimar’s body parts were dismembered and monetary awards were awarded to those parts not damaged by the gunshot wound – including $900 for her torso and $703 for her legs.
Then, six weeks after Aurimar’s death, the Medical Examiner’s Office completed its work on the case, and because no one had taken steps to make arrangements for Aurimar’s body, it was “now considered abandoned,” according to a letter sent was shipped on December 15. 2022.
It said her remains “will be processed according to our standard procedures,” according to NBC News, which reports that Arelis never received such notice.
A day later, Aurimar’s body was delivered to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, without her family’s knowledge.
In early 2023, Arelis said she began to worry that something was wrong.
She had received Johnson’s email address from Moreno’s sister-in-law, not knowing what his role was but knowing he might have information about her daughter’s body. So she wrote to him on February 10 and said: ‘I have not heard anything about the body of my daughter Aurimar del Carmen Iturriago Villegas.
‘Please, I need to know. God bless you immensely.”
Johnson, the assistant manager of the center’s body donation program, responded quickly, copying his supervisor, Claudia Yellot, and forwarding Arelis his earlier conversation with Moreno, adding that her former neighbor never took action to complete the donation.
He suggested she contact the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, but did not mention that the Health Science Center already had her daughter’s body parts and would soon prepare them for one of its clients.
The biotech company Relievant Medsystems paid the center $35,672 to host a four-day course and required 18 torsos for training in the Intracept back pain procedure – which Boston Scientific later paid $150 million to acquire.
Jessica Sachariason, a spokesperson for Boston Scientific, said NBC Relievant officials were unaware that the center had supplied the company with dozens of unclaimed bodies over the years.
She said the company has since updated its policy to require consent from the dead or their next of kin for human specimens used in training.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the mother and family of Aurimal Iturriago Villegas,” Sachariason said. “No family member should have to experience something so tragic.”
Aurimar’s mother, Arelis, prays for her daughter’s body to come home
A month and a half after the training, on July 5, 2023, the Health Science Center sent part of Aurimar’s body to a crematorium in the Dallas area, and in September — just weeks after what would have been her 22nd birthday — her ashes. were delivered to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office as required by the medical school’s contract with the county.
Then, on January 23, 2024, Aurimar’s legs were used to train students to become physician assistants.
That same month, Arelis received a call on WhatsApp from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office saying that prosecutors had reached a plea deal to send Webb, the shooter, to prison for 23 years.
Arelis thanked officials for the information and asked about her daughter’s body.
The Public Prosecution Service then told its prosecutors that they had tracked down information and discovered that Aurimar had been deemed “unclaimed” by the province and cremated. A prosecutor also attempted to connect Arelis with local officials who could answer more questions about the location of Aurimar’s remains.
When she finally learned that her daughter’s body had been dismembered and cremated at the Health Science Center, an official sent her a map of a cemetery marking where her daughter’s ashes were buried.
“Even though it hurts my soul, I think I’m going to throw in the towel and leave things in God’s hands,” Arelis told Telemundo.
But her family says they are worried about her. She notes that she refuses to eat, her blood pressure rises, and she suddenly seems much older as she prays every night to bring her daughter home.
Meanwhile, the Health Science Center has apologized.
‘We have become aware of problems within our Willed Body Program, and that there were errors in its management and oversight. The program does not meet the standards of respect, care and professionalism we demand,” they wrote in part.
“The University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth extends its deepest apologies to the families affected.
“We strive to operate all programs with transparency, integrity and the highest ethical standards, and we strive to maintain confidence in our institution.”
“We hope that these actions can ensure that our educational studies are conducted with every effort to demonstrate dignity, grace and respect.”