The Pennsylvania Department of State and the Philadelphia District Attorney's office launched separate investigations into the funeral home scandal after the Daily News (http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4002793) reported that the funeral home was linked to a ghoulish multi-state probe in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

"Our office has recently filed the first two (Schaming and Oprea, supra) of several 'donor' lawsuits and it is likely we will be filing many more," said Anapol Schwartz Attorney Melissa Hague, Esquire. "The Schaming and Oprea cases both involve corpses that were allegedly cut up and sold for surgical implantation without the consent of the family. In each case, the family was told that the body had been cremated, while it is their belief that it was cut up and sold."

In March 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified healthcare professionals that Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, New Jersey, may not have properly screened donors for infectious diseases for bone, skin, and tendon tissues which were transplanted in patients requiring implants. As the probe grew so did the number of dead bodies that were inappropriately ravaged for body parts; the number of families who face unfathomable heartache; and the number of people who received the dubious implants.

The human tissue industry is a billion dollar industry.