Hundreds of fetuses found in garage

PHILADELPHIA - Officials in Pennsylvania are investigating the discovery of 400 fetuses found in a garage that once belonged to a funeral home director under contract with a local hospital to cremate them.

Most of the foetuses were preserved in embalming fluid inside labelled plastic containers and officials plan to notify the hospital patients involved once all the remains have been identified, officials said.

The foetuses were discovered in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, last Friday by a relative of the garage's former owner. The former owner ran a funeral home, now closed, that contracted with Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh to cremate aborted or miscarried fetuses.

The funeral home director, Robert Winston Jr, is cooperating with police and is not charged with any offence, according to his attorney, James Ecker.

Officials declined to speculate why Winston kept the fetuses rather than dispose of them.

Most of the fetuses were less than 16 weeks old, the point below which a foetus is treated as a "surgical specimen" and is not legally required to be reported to the police or coroner, said Cyril Wecht, coroner for Allegheny County.

At 16 weeks or more, a fetus is considered a body and subject to autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said.

The fetuses date from 1999 to 2002, he said.

"We can appreciate the emotional trauma these families have suffered and we want to be able to say accurately and honestly what we have," Wecht said. The identification process should be complete by next week, he said.

In some cases, Wecht said some families may choose to bury the fetuses.

A spokeswoman for Allegheny county police said the department would make no comment until the coroner's investigation was complete.

Three years ago, more than 300 bodies meant for cremation were discovered dumped in sheds, burial pits and nearby woods of a crematory in Noble, Georgia.

The crematory operator pleaded guilty to theft, fraud, abuse of a corpse and making a false statement and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

- REUTERS