Late broadcaster Alistair Cooke's bones 'stolen'

The family of the late veteran British born broadcaster Alistair Cooke say they are horrified at reports his bones were stolen by a criminal gang trading in body parts, according to news agency the Associated Press (AP).

Cooke, who presented BBC Radio 4's Letter From America for more than half a century, died in New York in March last year from lung cancer that spread to his bones.

The New York Daily News claims some of the 95-year-old's diseased bones were taken before his cremation, without the family's permission, and are thought to have been sold for transplants, say AP in the report.

His stepdaughter, Holly Rumbold, told AP the practice was "corrupt and evil".

"I'm furious, I'm enraged, I'm outraged. My stepfather is not the only one that's been used for this macabre purpose and people are making billions of dollars out of it," she is reported as saying.