Report: Body snatching doctor is dying of bone cancer
The doctor convicted of masterminding a ghoulish scheme to harvest the bones and organs of deceased people in order to sell them at high prices is dying of bone cancer in prison, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
The Daily News reported on April 1 that Dr. Michael Mastromarino, 49, is near death in an upstate New York prison. Mastromarino, a Catholic, was given Last Rites by a priest two weeks ago. The Brooklyn Eagle reported extensively on the scheme starting in 2005, as the scandle broke and then grew to encompass multiple funeral homes and transplants across the country.
Mastromarino, an oral surgeon, was convicted in 2006 of illegally removing bones and organs from dead people without permission from the families of the deceased and then selling the body parts to companies who provided them to hospitals for transplants. He was sentenced to serve 18 to 54 years in prison.