DHL workers called Thai police after discovering infant body parts inside a package.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The packages included an infant's head, a sliced foot and an adult heart
- Thai police: Two Americans said they wanted to surprise their friends back home
- Officials: The body parts were stolen from a hospital; video shows the two Americans
The two men, identified
as Ryan Edward McPherson and Daniel Jamon Tanner, told police they
wanted to surprise their friends back home, Royal Thai Police Deputy
Commissioner Gen. Ruangsak Jritake said.
It was not immediately clear whether McPherson or Tanner had attorneys.
A delivery company
intervened in the shipment. On Saturday, a DHL office in Thailand's
Pathum Thani province called police after workers there were scanning
shipments and discovered the body parts inside three packages.
The packages contained five acrylic plastic boxes, Jritake said.
One box contained an
infant's head; another contained a baby's left foot, which was sliced
into three pieces, the police official said. The other acrylic boxes
contained an adult heart and adult skin.
"We have talked with an
American who was trying to send the parcels to the USA, but we could not
press any charges on him and we are not quite sure which laws we can
apply to him." Bang Pongpang police chief Col. Adisorn Semsawat said
over the weekend.
At the time, police said
the American told them he found the infant body parts at a night flea
market and that he had paid about $100 for them -- though he could not
remember where the market was located.
But on Monday, authorities revealed more details on the case.
All the body parts were
stolen from the Siriraj Medical Museum within Siriraj Hospital, the
largest hospital in Thailand, Jritake said. The body parts were taken
from the forensic medicine museum and anatomical museum.
Police said closed-circuit video from the hospital showed two men identified as McPherson and Tanner.
Royal Thai Police are seeking an arrest warrant for the two men and plan to charge them with theft from a government hospital.
But the two men have
already left Thailand for Cambodia. If an arrest warrant is approved,
Thai officials may have to seek the two men's extradition.
Thai police say they've been in touch with the U.S. Embassy.
The U.S. embassies in Bangkok and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.
Not the first time
The bizarre discovery is not the first time infant remains have been found in Thailand. In 2010, more than 2,000 illegally aborted fetuses were recovered at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok.
Infant body parts can be
bought on the Thai black market. Some Thais practice black magic and
believe that supernatural power comes from infant body parts, if the
rites are performed by monks or sorcerers. They believe that having the
items provides protection and business success and can ward off bad
luck.
Police say in 2010, the
smell of decay led investigators to the Phai-nguern Chotinaram temple in
central Bangkok, where they discovered more than 2,000 illegally
aborted fetuses. Three people were arrested, including two morticians
who were charged with hiding bodies.
According to the hospital museum website,
for 120 years "Siriraj Hospital has collectively gathered an enormous
compilation of medical equipments and tools, anatomical and clinical
specimens including important artifacts and archives relating to the
history of medicine in Thailand."