KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tissue samples and other biological material in possession of Kansas state officials in connection with the prosecution of a man who provided illegal autopsy services will be returned to families by Oct. 6 or destroyed.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office announced Tuesday that Shawnee County District Court Judge Mary Christopher had “granted a request from Schmidt’s office to end the receivership of samples obtained during the investigation and prosecution of Shawn Parcells.”
Parcells, a former pathologist’s assistant with the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office, previously has lived and worked in Leawood and Topeka, which is where the tissue samples in the case were obtained.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment “has inventoried and safely stored the samples, releasing identified samples to appropriate family members who request them.”
Remaining samples not claimed by Oct. 6 “will be medically disposed according to court orders,” Schmidt’s office said in a statement.
Anyone with reason to believe a family member’s remains may have been in Parcells’ possession and seeks to have them returned should contact the AG office’s Victim Services Division at 785-291-3950 as soon as possible and no later than Oct. 6.
Parcells, 42, was banned in May 2020 from conducting any business that relates to the human body ever again in Kansas.
Christopher ordered Parcells to pay more than $250,000 last month to the families of 82 people who were offered illegal private autopsy services.
A company he controlled also faced a pair of $200,000 fines and he owed Wabaunsee County nearly $50,000 in damages.
He was convicted in November 2021 on six charges related to the autopsy business in Wabaunsee County.
He also faced a federal indictment for wire fraud.
