SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann sentenced Matthew Lampi, age 50, of East Bethel, Minnesota, to 15 months in prison for interstate transport of stolen human remains.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Lampi previously entered a guilty plea to a felony Indictment, admitting that he had purchased and caused to be transported in interstate commerce stolen human remains. Lampi admitted that he had purchased human remains, including the corpse of a stillborn baby boy, from Jeremy Pauley, a resident of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Pauley purchased stolen human remains from Candace Chapman Scott, who stole the remains from her employer, a Little Rock, Arkansas mortuary and crematorium. Scott stole parts of cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, many of which had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by an area medical school, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned as cremains to their families. Scott sold the stolen remains to Pauley and shipped them to Pauley in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Pauley sold many of the stolen remains he purchased to other individuals, including Matthew Lampi. Lampi and Pauley bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments.
Among the items Pauley sold and shipped to Lampi in Minnesota was the corpse of a stillborn baby named Lux. Lux’s mother, who had engaged a funeral home in the Little Rock area to cremate her son’s remains, was given ashes purported to be the cremains of her deceased son. Instead, Scott stole the baby’s body and sold and shipped it to Pauley, who then sold and shipped it to Lampi.
In addition to 15 months in prison, Chief Judge Brann ordered Lampi to pay a fine of $2,000 and restitution to Lux’s mother of $1,700. Both Pauley and Chapman Scott are awaiting sentencing after entering pleas of guilty to federal charges in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, respectively.
This case is part of a multi-year investigation into interstate trafficking of stolen human remains. Multiple defendants have been charged in this district ad Arkansas, and several have entered pleas of guilty.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni is prosecuting the case.
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