U.S. Tourists Accused Of Trying To Ship Human Parts Out Of Thailand

By Krishnadev Calamur

Published November 17, 2014 at 1:23 PM CST

Policemen show pictures of body parts found in parcels as they address reporters in Bangkok on Monday. Thai police said two Americans who had tried to send the parts to the U.S. had fled the country.

Preserved human parts — including an infant's head, a baby's foot and an adult heart — stolen from a medical museum in Thailand last month were discovered over the weekend in three boxes labeled as toys that were being shipped to Las Vegas.

Workers at DHL discovered five body parts when they X-rayed the boxes, then alerted the Thai police. They identified the man who shipped the boxes as Ryan McPherson, a 31-year-old American tourist, and questioned him and another American, Daniel Tanner, 33, about the packages.

McPherson reportedly told them he had found the parts at a night market in Bangkok.

"He said he thought the body parts were bizarre and wanted to send them to his friends in the U.S.," Police Col. Chumpol Pumpuang said.

His comments were reported by The Associated Press.

Both McPherson and Tanner were released and left the country this morning, and were in Cambodia, police said. Police also said they were contacting the FBI about the people to whom the packages were addressed.

Udom Kachintorn, dean of the faculty of medicine at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, said today that the human remains were stolen from the facility's museums. He said McPherson and Tanner had visited the museums last week, but surveillance video did not show them taking anything.