A worker for a North Austin mortuary was arrested after allegedly performing "experiments" on corpses and fraudulently obtaining death certificates, according to Fox 7. Police charged 50-year-old Adeline Ngan-Binh Bui with one count of state-jail felony abuse of corpse. She's also facing five counts of second-degree felony tampering with governmental records with intent to defraud or harm.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Mortuary Employee Allegedly Experimented On Corpses
These horrifying incidents date back to August 2022, according to court documents. Interestingly, Bui turned herself in for these crimes on April 18 at Travis County Jail. They set her bond to $27,500, and despite the charges, no records show that Bui is currently in custody.
Bui didn't just turn herself in out of the blue. In March, a former embalmer from Capital Mortuary Services tipped off the Texas Funeral Services Commission. He claimed that Bui "fraudulently initiated and obtained" at least ten death certificates. Bui allegedly did this under the embalmer's name and license number without his knowledge.
What's worse is that he claimed Bui was experimenting on "separated anatomical structures." By this, he meant a corpse's arms. He detailed the alleged experiment, which involved injecting formaldehyde into the body's arms. Bui reportedly did this to observe the effects it had on severed limbs over time.
On April 10, the TFSC issued a cease and desist letter to the mortuary. It wrote that this funeral home "failed to meet building, health, and safety codes per TEX. OCC. CODE § 651.351(d)." Due to this, they would have to "immediately cease and desist all operations." Since this cease and desist letter, the Capital Mortuary Services has been shut down.
Police Got Suspect To Admit To Experimenting On Corpses
The Austin Police Department finally got involved on April 2 when the TFSC got in contact with them. They provided the authorities with the allegedly fraudulent death certificates. In an affidavit, the former embalmer swore he was a crematory operator, driver, and embalmer. He wasn't even employed as a funeral director with Capital Mortuary Services, and he claimed he never had access to the death certificates.
After that, more evidence came forward about the two other fraudulent certificates. One piece of evidence showed communication from Bui to the former embalmer. At one point, she wrote, "let's us[e] this update to monitor our experiment." She then shared multiple photos of what police deem to be severed arms at various stages of decomposition.
The documents also mentioned that Bui "allowed the severed body parts to be placed in the crematory retort." The body parts would then get cremated "in their dissected and disturbed state."
Bui did admit to many things when a detective interviewed her. She allegedly confessed to using the embalmer's identity on the certificates with his consent. She also reportedly admitted to ordering her staff to conduct the formaldehyde experiments. Overall, Bui claimed that she mutilated at least 15 corpses.
