This was a tough one to report. After a young migrant was murdered in Dallas, her mother wanted her remains returned to Venezuela. Instead, officials in Texas cut up her daughter’s body and assigned prices to the parts undamaged by the bullet that killed her. 1/ www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news... - ThreadSky

mikehixenbaugh.com • 70 days ago

This was a tough one to report.

After a young migrant was murdered in Dallas, her mother wanted her remains returned to Venezuela.

Instead, officials in Texas cut up her daughter’s body and assigned prices to the parts undamaged by the bullet that killed her. 1/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/venezuelan-migrant-body-harvested-university-north-texas-rcna179796

Comments

weekapaug401.bsky.social•70 days ago

Texas really is a giant state full or morons and the least Christian people on earth.

urbanexile.bsky.social•70 days ago

Is there not a decent human being left among Texas 'officials'? I haven't seen an issue yet - migrants, school shootings, pregnant women deaths - where they haven't raced to the bottom of iniquity. If they aren't all going to hell, it doesn't exist.

tripletheblue.bsky.social•70 days ago

It is heartbreaking on so many levels and quite the condemnation of where our society is at. Thank you for your work on this.

doglove3.bsky.social•69 days ago

This is Texas. Women are just a commodity, like cattle.

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

Arelis Coromoto Villegas only learned her daughter, Aurimar, had been used for medical research two years after her death — not from authorities, but from an article published by NBC News and Noticias Telemundo as part of our investigation into the U.S. body trade. 2/

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

As Arelis fought to bring Aurimar home, records show the UNT Health Science Center leased out her daughter’s torso for a training by a major biotech company. Her remains had become a commodity in a booming and poorly regulated industry, as @tktk.bsky.social reports 3/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/boston-scientific-relievant-unclaimed-bodies-university-north-texas-rcna179799

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

My brilliant colleague Anagilmara Vílchez took on the painful duty of sharing all of this information with the family. 4/

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

The family was angry and disgusted, but also grateful to finally have answers. “It’s a very painful thing,” Arelis said in Spanish, in an interview from her home in Venezuela. “She’s not a little animal to be butchered, to be cut up.” 5/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/venezuelan-migrant-body-harvested-university-north-texas-rcna179796

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

With the information we provided, Arelis then sought to have Aurimar’s ashes sent to her in Venezuela. Without them, she told us, she can’t truly mourn.

To learn how that played out, please read the article here. 6/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/venezuelan-migrant-body-harvested-university-north-texas-rcna179796

mikehixenbaugh.com•70 days ago

They are among nearly a dozen families who now have learned from NBC News that a loved one’s body was declared unclaimed and given to the UNT Health Science Center without their consent.

Read the complete @nbcnews.com “Dealing the Dead” series here. 7/
https://www.nbcnews.com/dealing-the-dead