PhOtOs-Americans Caught Shipping Baby Body Parts>Flee Thailand
 

Americans Suspected of Trying to Ship Baby Body Parts Flee Thailand:

Thai Police Reveal US Tourists who Fled the Country after Trying to Transport Body Parts -One is TV Producer who Served Prison Time for Bumfights Show which saw Tramps Fight Each Other

• Staff at DHL sorting office in Bangkok made the startling discovery
• Police claim the packages were being sent to Las Vegas
• One of the tourists named as controversial filmmaker Ryan McPherson
• He produced TV series Bumfights, which exploited homeless men for cash
• American tourist told authorities he bought the items at a night market
• Police the parts were stolen from Bangkok hospital's 'Museum of Death'

Daily Mail UK, 23 November 2014


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Arrest: Ryan McPherson (pictured in court in 2003) was jailed over the TV series Bumfights, in which homeless men attempt amateur stunts in exchange for money, alcohol, and other incentives


The two American tourists who fled Thailand after allegedly trying to post body parts to Las Vegas are film-makers who served time in prison for producing a show that paid homeless men to fight each other, it has been revealed.

Ryan McPherson, 31, was questioned on Saturday after the gruesome discovery of a baby's head, a foot, 'sheets' of tattooed skin and an adult heart with stab-wounds, by staff at a DHL sorting office in Bangkok.

The second suspect was reported to be Daniel Tanner, 33, a co-producer on the controversial television series, Bumfights.


The parts - which police believe were stolen from a Bangkok hospital's 'Museum of Death' - were stored in plastic containers filled with formaldehyde, wrapped and addressed to Las Vegas.

'X-rays showed there were contents similar to human body parts. From our investigation of three parcels we found human body parts in five plastic containers,' Police Lieutenant General Ruangsak Jaritake, assistant to the National Police Commissioner, told reporters.

'The packages were marked 'children's toys' but x-rays showed they were not children's toys.'

He said the boxes in fact contained a left foot, skull, face and heart of babies as well as pieces of skin tattooed with Khmer letters and tiger patterns.

McPherson and Tanner told police they bought the items at a market and wanted to send them back to friends as a joke.

Both men were released without charge, upon which they crossed into Cambodia yesterday, police said. But police have now demanded the two foreigners return 'for further investigation' over breaching customs laws.
The controversial film-makers, from California, produced the popular TV series Bumfights, in which homeless men attempt amateur stunts in exchange for money, alcohol, and other incentives.


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Thai police officers show pictures of tattooed human skin during a press conference in Bangkok


But they were arrested after the first episode, Bumfights Vol. 1 – Cause For Concern, was released on DVD in 2002 and charged with misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight and sentenced to 280-hours of community service at a homeless shelter.
But when McPherson failed to show up to the work, he was jailed for 180 days.

One of the homeless men involved in the video was even paid to have the word 'Bumfights' tattooed on his forehead.

In 2006, the filmmakers agreed to stop making Bumfights films and pay three of the homeless men featured as part of an out of court settlement. The men were attempting to sue the film's producers for emotional and physical damages suffered by appearing in the Bumfights videos.
The Nation newspaper said, citing a police source, that he had left for Cambodia but promised to return to Thailand on November 25 to cooperate with police. The second man has not been identified.


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Policemen show pictures of body parts found in parcels as they address reporters in Bangkok

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Police say one of the packages contained an adult 'sheet of skin' with tattoo markings


Police Col. Chumpol Poompuang told reporters that the American claimed he had bought the objects to 'spook' a friend 'for fun'.
He told reporters:

'He said he thought the body parts were bizarre and wanted to send them to his friends in the US.'

He said the men told police they had bought the infant's head and other organs from a night flea market at Saphan Phut (Memorial Bridge) but were unable to retrace their steps back to the shop.
He confirmed the man was questioned for several hours before he was released without charges.

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Gruesome: DHL staff made the startling discovery when they scanned three packages

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One of the American tourists told police the items were purchased at a night market in Bangkok


Police said the two suspects aged 31 and 33, and said they were being 'monitored', but did not say how.
Both men fled Thailand on Sunday through a checkpoint in the east of the country, Ruangsak said.
He said the heart had stab marks and belonged to an adult while the sheet of skin with tattoo markings also belonged to an adult.

'As soon as we have results, we will contact the FBI,' he said.

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The three packages were being sent to Las Vegas, including one that a tourist had addressed to himself


Doctors at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital said that the body parts were taken from the hospital's Medical Museum, nicknamed the Museum of Death, which exhibits preserved human remains, many of them from murder victims.

'We can confirm that they were stolen from Siriraj,' Udom Kachintorn, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, told reporters.

He added that the two Americans visited the museum last month.
In 2012, Thai police arrested a British citizen of Taiwanese origin after discovering six human foetuses which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf stuffed into travel bags at a hotel room in Bangkok's Chinatown.

Thai detectives said they believed the corpses were due to be sent to Taiwan to be used as part of a black magic ritual.