This article is part of “Dealing the Dead,” a series investigating the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.
For five years, the unclaimed dead of Dallas and Tarrant counties were delivered to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
There, the bodies were assessed based on their usefulness to medical science: Those that tested positive for infectious diseases or had begun to decompose were cremated.
Others were cut into pieces and leased out to medical schools, the U.S. Army and for-profit medical technology companies.
The database is based on spreadsheets of unclaimed bodies obtained through open records requests from the county medical examiners.
Persons:
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Organizations:
University of North Texas Health Science, U.S . Army, NBC, Health Science Center, NBC News, Dallas
Locations:
Dallas, Tarrant, Fort Worth, freezers, Texas