Arelis Coromoto Villegas's daughter, Aurimar Iturriago Villegas, was shot and killed in Texas shortly after reaching the US border. Her body was donated to a medical school without her family's knowledge, sparking outrage over the treatment of unclaimed bodies in the US.
This article is part of “Dealing the Dead,” a series investigating the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research. Every day for two seemingly endless months, Arelis Coromoto Villegas repeated the same prayer: From her small, cinder-block home in Venezuela, she asked God to protect her 21-year-old daughter as she trekked thousands of miles through treacherous jungle and desert terrain to reach America’s southern border.
Her prayers were answered in September 2022 when Aurimar Iturriago Villegas crossed safely into the U.S. and continued north with her own prayer — to land a job and eventually earn enough money to help her mother build a new house. But within two months of her arrival in Texas, Aurimar was dead, shot in a road rage incident near Dallas as she sat in the back seat of a car. And then, for her mother, the unthinkable somehow became the unimaginable. Without her family’s knowledge, county authorities donated Aurimar’s body to a local medical school, where officials cut it up and assigned dollar figures to parts that hadn’t been damaged by the bullet that struck her head — $900 for her torso, $703 for her legs. Remnants of Aurimar’s body were cremated and buried in a field among strangers in a Dallas cemetery, all while her mother desperately sought to have her murdered daughter returned to Venezuela, unaware her body had become a commodity in the name of science. Arelis only learned her daughter had been used for research two years after her death, when NBC News and Noticias Telemundo — as part of a broader investigation of the U.S. body industry — published the names of hundreds of people whose unclaimed bodies were sent to the Fort Worth-based University of North Texas Health Science Center. “It’s a very painful thing,” Arelis said in Spanish, in an interview from her home in a small town in western Venezuela. “She’s not a little animal to be butchered, to be cut up
MEDICAL RESEARCH UNCLAIMED BODIES IMMIGRATION ROAD RAGE TEXAS
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Venezuelan migrant arrested in Colorado for allegedly sexually assaulting boss’ 14-year-old daughter: reportA Venezuelan migrant is accused of sexually assaulting the 14-year-old daughter of his employer while he lived in the individual's house in Colorado, police and reports say.
Read more »
Snoop Dogg’s daughter, Cori Broadus, cries while wedding dress shopping: 'I hate my body'Snoop Dogg’s daughter Cori breaks down while wedding dress shopping in promo for new docuseries
Read more »
Snoop Dogg’s Daughter Cries I Hate My Body While Wedding Dress ShoppingSnoop Dogg’s daughter, Cori Broadus, got candid about her body while wedding dress shopping for her nuptials to Wayne Deuce
Read more »
Bath & Body Works' Christmas Sale 2024 Has $5 Body CareSmell like candy apple, snowflake, vanilla, peppermint goodness.
Read more »
Whole body hype: Do deodorants for the whole body really work?Consumer Reports sniffs out the truth so you can decide if whole body deodorants are worth your money.
Read more »
Bath & Body Works’ Annual Body Care Day Is Back — Everything You Need to KnowWhat is Bath & Body Works Body Care Day? Learn more about the annual event with deals on body care items, including mists, moisturizers and more.
Read more »