Mom devastated as county secretly donates daughter's body to science with parts chopped up and sold for as little as $703

A grieving mother has been left devastated after learning that a Texas county secretly donated her daughter's body to science and chopped up and sold her parts.

Aurimar Hurriago Villegas, 21, was riding in the back of a vehicle in a suburb of Dallas with two acquaintances on October 29, 2022, when 25-year-old Shardrel Webb fired a gun into the rear of the car, NBC News reports.

Paramedics later found her slumped over 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 then 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 its Willed Body Program.

Under the deal, any bodies that are declared 'unclaimed' could be sent to the school -even though county coroners, medical institutions and others repeatedly failed to contact family members before declaring the bodies 'unclaimed.'

For Villegas, that meant her body was cut up, and the parts that were not damaged by the gunshot wound were assigned monetary figures - including $900 for her torso and $703 for her legs.

Other remnants were cremated and buried in a field alongside strangers in Dallas, as Villegas' mother, Arelis Coromoto Villegas, desperately fought to get her daughter's body back home to Venezuela - not knowing what had happened.

Aurimar had crossed into the United States in September 2022, and had been in constant communication with her mother ever since.

The two even spoke just hours before Aurimar's death, but NBC News reports that Arelis was not immediately made aware of her daughter's passing - even though the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office had her phone number on file.

Instead, she learned about her daughter's murder from Aurimar's younger sister, Auribel Acero Villegas, who was just 17, and had spoken to a neighbor in Venezuela who knew Alexis Moreno - another neighbor, with whom Aurimar had been living.

One 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 asked for permission to use Moreno as the family's primary point of contact, which she agreed to.

'That's as far as the conversation went,' Auribel said.

But Aurimar's case file contained no mention of any such phone call.

Instead, an entry dated October 31 - two days after Aurimar's death - a county official reported meeting with Moreno in person and speaking to Arelis on Moreno's cellphone.

It claimed that Arelis granted Moreno 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 requiring Arelis 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 granted him authority over what could be done to her body, while potentially cutting out her mother.

The county employee wrote Arelis' number in the file, but there is no indication anyone at the office attempted to contact her over the next two years, as the grieving mother, her family and friends launched a fundraising campaign to help send Aurimar's remains home. 

Any attempts to glean details about Aurimar's death and claim her body were complicated by the fact that even though Arelis could make and receive phone calls through WhatsApp, she could not afford to call landlines in the Untied States.

But two and a half weeks after her death, Moreno wrote to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, offering to donate her body to the program on behalf of her mother - despite Arelis insisting she never agreed to that.

Tyler Johnson, the assistant manager of the center's body donation program, replied the next day, writing in Spanish: 'First, I need to confirm you and the mother understand body donation.'

When Moreno then confirmed he wanted to proceed, Johnson sent a donor consent form and gave him an eight-hour deadline to return them.

Moreno never wound up sending back the paperwork, and soon, Aurimar's family said, he stopped answering their messages as well.

Then, six weeks after Aurimar's death, the Medical Examiner's Office concluded its work on the case, and because nobody had followed through on making arrangements for Aurimar's body it was 'now considered to be abandoned,' according to a letter sent on December 15, 2022.

It said her remains 'will be processed following our standard procedures,' according to NBC News, which reports that Arelis never received any such notification.

One day later, Aurimar's body was delivered to the University of North Texas Health Science Center - without her family's knowledge. 

By early 2023, Arelis said she began to worry 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 may have information about her daughter's body. So she wrote to him on February 10, saying: 'I have not heard anything about the body of my daughter Aurimar del Carmen Iturriago Villegas.

'Please, I need to know. God bless you greatly.'

Johnson, the assistant manager of the center's body donation program, quickly replied and copied his supervisor, Claudia Yellot, forwarding Arelis his earlier exchange with Moreno, adding that her former neighbor never followed up 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 in its possession and would soon be preparing it for one of its customers.

The biotech company Relievant Medsystems paid the center $35,672 to host a four-day course and needed 18 torsos for training on its Intracept back pain procedure - which Boston Scientific later paid $150million to acquire. 

Jessica Sachariason, a spokesperson for Boston Scientific, told NBC Relievant officials did not know the center provided the company dozens of unclaimed bodies over the years.

She said the company has since updated its policies to require consent from the dead or their next of kin for any human specimens used in training.

'Our deepest condolences go out to the mother and the family of Aurimal Iturriago Villegas,' Sachariason said. 'No family member should have to experience somthing this tragic.' 

A full month and a half after the training, on July 5, 2023, the Health Science Center sent a portion of Aurimar's body to a Dallas-area crematory, then in September - just weeks after what would have been her 22 birthday - her ashes were delivered to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office as required under the medical school's contract with the county.

Then, on January 23, 2024, Aurimar's legs were used to train students studying to become physician assistants.

That same month, Arelis received a call on WhatsApp from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office saying prosecutors reached a plea deal to send Webb, the shooter, to prison for 23 years.

Arelis thanked the officials for the information and asked about her daughter's body.

The District Attorney's Office then told her prosecutors tracked down information and discovered that Aurimar had been deemed 'unclaimed' by the county 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 was sliced up at the Health Science Center and cremated, 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, noting she has been refusing to eat, her blood pressure spiked and she suddenly appears much older as she prays every night to bring her daughter home.

Meanwhile, the Health Science Center has issued an apology. 

'We have become aware of issues within our Willed Body Program, and that failures existed in its management and oversight. The program has fallen short of the standards of respect, care, and professionalism that we demand,' they wrote in part.

'The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth extends its deepest apologies to the families who have been impacted.

'We are committed to operating all programs with transparency, integrity and the highest ethical standards, and we are dedicated to maintaining trust in our institution.'

'We hope these actions can ensure our educational studies are made with every effort to show dignity, grace and respect.'