Kansas man sentenced to prison for illegal autopsy scheme, accused of $1 million scam
A Kansas man who illegally provided private autopsy services has been sentenced to more than five years in prison.
Shawn Parcells, 42, pleaded guilty May 26 to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced Monday in a Topeka federal court. He is accused of scamming people out of more than $1 million through his autopsy business.
“During their most vulnerable state, Mr. Parcells willfully defrauded individuals while they were grieving the loss of a loved one,” said Charles Dayoub, FBI Special Agent in Charge.
As the owner of National Autopsy Services LLC, Parcells charged a client $5,000 to conduct an autopsy that the 42-year-old was not qualified to produce. He showed the client false credentials and sent him a final autopsy report made within “a certain degree of medical certainty as a Forensic, Neuro, and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Fellow,” according to July 2016 court documents.
No licensed pathologist participated in the report, which is illegal.
Parcells went on to collect fees from over 350 clients between 2016 and 2019. He received a total of $1,166,000 and in many cases failed to provide clients with completed autopsy reports.
Many cases have been filed against Parcells and his three companies, which provided clients with illegal autopsy services.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed a case against Parcells in 2019 for conducting autopsies without any supervision and in accordance with Kansas law.
Prosecutors discovered that Parcells collected more than 1,600 biological samples, mostly human tissue, from his cases. Those were placed into the custody of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment by court order in November 2019.
That year, a Shawnee County judge temporarily banned Parcells from conducting autopsies, forensic pathology and tissue recovery under a court order issued more than three years ago, pending the outcome of the cases against him.
A federal grand jury indicted Parcells on 10 counts of wire fraud in November 2020. He was also convicted in Wabaunsee County of three misdemeanor counts of criminal desecration and three felony counts of theft, according to 2021 court documents.
All three of his private autopsy companies were permanently banned and required to pay over $400,000 in penalties for violating Kansas law and business standards in August 2022 in Shawnee County District Court. The judge also ordered Parcells to pay over $250,000 in restitution to 82 people that used his services.
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 11:01 AM.
