A body donation facility that claimed it would use body parts for medical research sold some to the military for use in shooting and explosives testing, a court has heard.

The Biological Resource Center in Phoenix, Arizona, is accused of mishandling the remains of 23 people and misleading their relatives as to how those remains would be used.

The first day of the civil trial heard that remains were sold to third parties, including the military for destructive testing in at least two cases.

Image: Conrad Patrick donated his body to medical research. Here's what happened next. Pic: BRC and law enforcement

Others were mistreated in the centre's storage facilities.

Retired FBI agent Mark Cwynar said he and his colleagues raided the facility in 2014 and found a table stacked with human legs, heads in a cooler and torsos without heads and limbs.


He told the court that some of the agents who took part in the raid were left so traumatised that they needed counselling.

He said: "I personally observed several individuals emotionally upset. Some individuals refused to go back into the scene."

Image: The relatives of 23 people are suing the centre's owners

Mr Cwynar said he had also seen a torso with its head removed and a smaller head sewn on it, something he compared to a character from Frankentstein.

The relatives of 23 people are suing the centre's owners, saying they were promised the remains would be used for research before being cremated and returned to them in boxes.

They said they were given boxes with what they thought were the remains but they later found the remains had instead been sold or were still at the donation centre.

David TeSelle, who is representing the relatives, told jurors that they had not been told the bodies would be cut up, sold for profit or used in ways they would not have approved of.

He showed the court the business's price list which said that a torso without a head went for $4,000 (£3,100).

"This is a case about honesty, dignity and respect owed to a loved one," he added.

Image: Relatives were promised remains would be used for research before being cremated and returned to them in boxes

The centre's owner, Stephen Douglas Gore, admitted in 2015 that he had played a part in mishandling the remains.

He denied the allegations in the lawsuit but said that his company had used donations in ways that went against donors' wishes.

Mr Gore's lawyer Timothy O'Connor said the relatives had all signed consent forms granting permission for the bodies to be dissected and that it was legal for the centre to profit.