Heads and torsos found in shipment

A HUMAN head and torso were found inside a red biohazard tub in what was supposed to be a routine shipment of medical waste from New Mexico to a Kansas company.

The gruesome discovery last week turned out to be just the start.

Over the next few days, six more heads and torsos apparently dismembered with a chain saw or another cutting device turned up in containers also sent by the Albuquerque company Bio Care Southwest.

Bio Care owner Paul Montano was arrested this week following an investigation into the company that was supposed to have donated the organs in the bodies to science and have the remains cremated.

One man whose father’s remains showed up in the shipment in Kansas said the family received ashes of what they thought was their 83-year-old father after he died of a stroke.

Now they are in shock at the thought that the ashes they scattered in a heartfelt remembrance last year may not have been their father — or at least not all of his remains.

“To not give you everything and to have the head shipped some place else, it’s really disturbing,” said Chuck Hines, of Bosque Farms, New Mexico.

The owner of Bio Care Southwest denied dismembering any bodies. The investigation is ongoing; his alleged motive was not immediately known.

Bio Care receives donated bodies and harvests organs and other parts that it sells for medical research. The researchers return the organs to Bio Care once their experiments are complete, then Bio Care sends the remains for cremation and gives the ashes to the families, investigators said.

The company has a contract with Stericycle, based in Kansas City, to dispose of any leftover medical waste.

Stericycle told investigators it receives medical waste, soft tissue and organs and occasional limbs — but never heads and torsos.