4 days Ago By USA TODAY
A Florida woman was arrested last week, accused of selling human bones listed for $850 through her Orange City business and Facebook Marketplace, not your everyday online find, one police official said. After a 15-month investigation into the dealing of human body parts, Kymberlee Schopper, 52, was arrested April 10 on a warrant at her India Boulevard home. She was charged with the purchase and sale of human organs and tissue.
Charges have been filed against her business partner, Ashley Lelesi, who faces arrest, said Orange City Police Capt. Sherif El-Shami. Schopper was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail on $7,500 bail.
"It's not everyday that you find real human bones online," said El-Shami when asked about the case Friday, adding that, "Yes, it is illegal to sell human remains in Florida." Human remains for sale at Florida shop An Orange City resident alerted police in December 2023 about Wicked Wonderland, a business located at 2461 N. Volusia Ave.
in Orange City, which advertised the sale of the human bones on its Facebook page, according to an arrest report. Police reviewed Wicked Wonderland's Facebook page and saw two human skull fragments listed for $90; a human clavicle and scapula also listed for $90; a human rib and vertebra listed for $35 each; and a partial human skull priced at $600. In all, Schopper had $850 of human bones available for sale, detectives said.
"I am just glad it has come to an end," El-Shami said. Two calls made to Wicked Wonderland on Friday were sent to a voicemail with a message that said Ashley or Kymberlee, the business owners, will return calls. At around 9 a.
m. Friday morning, Wicked Wonderland posted on Facebook that the store would be closed and that their weekend hours "may vary from our usual schedule." Swifty merch and toilet seats: The priciest and wackiest unclaimed items found in 2024 Wicked Wonderland co-owner: We've been selling human bones for years Orange City police visited the business at 2461 N.
Volusia Ave., where a nervous co-owner, Ashley Lelesi, told police they had been selling human bones for several years and did not know that it was against the law, the arrest report pointed out. Investigators said the store had several human bone fragments bought from private sellers, which Lelesi described as "genuine human remains and delicate in nature," investigators noted in the report.
One skull fragment had been sold for $50, so police confiscated the remaining human skull fragment, the human clavicle and scapula, rib, vertebra and the partial skull. The bones were sent to the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office where they were analyzed, police said. In February 2024, Schopper and Lelesi showed up at the Orange City Police Department to ask for their bones back.
They provided redacted PayPal documents, requested more information about the case, a police report, and told police that they needed to get a warrant if they wanted more information, investigators said. Schopper told police the human bones were protected by Florida law as educational models, and the women became upset when police told them they could not get the human remains back because they were being examined, the arrest report states. While it's possible Schopper and Lelesi purchased the human remains from an online educational store, selling human remains in Florida is still illegal, El-Shami said.
The medical examiner's testing showed the skull fragment had archaeological origins and the vertebra was possibly an anatomical model and did not come from a burial environment. The bones were from two different people, police said. The medical examiner also identified the partial skull as that of an adult male, was of archaeological origin and signs of trauma was not observed on it, the investigative report states.
"Based on my investigation, it was determined that Schopper knowingly purchased and listed human bones for sale through Facebook Marketplace and their business website," investigators concluded in their report. This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida store owner arrested, accused of selling human bones.
