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Autopsy Service Owner Shawn Parcells Charged With Theft, Desecrating Bodies

(CBS4) - Shawn Parcells, owner of an autopsy service that was spotlighted in a 2018 CBS4 investigation, has been arrested by authorities in Kansas and charged with theft and criminal desecration. Parcells surrendered Friday morning at the Shawnee County Sheriff's Department in Kansas, according to a local news report.

Shawn Parcells
Shawn Parcells (credit: Wabunsee County)

"That's great, that's very good," said Patty Evans of Littleton when she learned of the arrest.

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CBS4's Brian Maass interviews Patty Evans (credit: CBS)

In December 2017, after her husband died, Evans paid Parcells and his National Autopsy Service $3,550 to perform an autopsy on her late husband. She repeatedly called the company seeking her husband's autopsy report but never got anything aside from excuses.

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(credit: Patty Evans)

Nine months after David Evans' death, CBS4 contacted Parcells about the missing report. He claimed "The report is actually done" but said he did not have correct contact information for Patty Evans to get her the information. He asked CBS4 to provide him her contact info. The contract Parcells had Evans sign months earlier had both her correct phone number and mailing address.

"I mean I don't know if an autopsy was done at this point," said the frustrated widow. As of Friday morning, Evans said she never received her husband's autopsy report.

Reporter Angie Ricono of Kansas City TV station KCTV broke the story of Parcell's Friday arrest. She reported, "More than 20 families from all over the country claim Shawn Parcells is an incompetent fraud, saying the Kansas man lied to them." Ricono reports more than 20 families across the country said they paid Parcells for autopsies but they were never completed.

The charges filed by the Kansas Attorney General relate to autopsies Parcell performed in 2014 and 2015.

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