Скачать или смотреть Arkansas victims of mortuary theft scheme inspire push for law banning sale of human remains

(20 Feb 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4555988

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Little Rock, Arkansas - 11 February 2025
1. Doneysha Smith shows footprints of her late son, Lux - UPSOUND: "You can actually see a lot of detail of his feet in there. It's kind of more this. You can kind of see the lines and everything like that."
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOT 1 ++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Doneysha Smith, Lux's Mother, Advocate of Lux's Law:
"We thought everything was fine and not having any clue that he actually had been carried out of the crematory and sold twice, shipped throughout the United States."
3. Smith shows card from hospital
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOTS 3 and 5++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lynell Logan, Lux's Grandmother, Advocate of Lux's Law:
"They told us that he they suspected that he had been trafficked. And I, I couldn't process it because I was like, we had a memorial service for him. We have jewelry pieces. We have an urn. I was there. I saw his memorial service, like, I planned his memorial service."
5. Lux's blanket
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOTS 5,7,8
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Doneysha Smith, Lux's Mother, Advocate of Lux's Law:
"And so it's just it's very disheartening to think that if this happened to anyone else, that they could get 12 to 15 months. This is way beyond 12 to 15 months. This is way past grave robbing. My son wasn't even able to get to his final resting place before someone disrespected him in his death."
7. Bracelet "Lux Siloam"

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Little Rock, Arkansas - 4 February 2025
8. Exterior of capitol building
9. State Senator Fred Love shows bill

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Little Rock, Arkansas - 11 February 2025
++FULLY COVERED BY SHOTS 8,9++
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Doneysha Smith, Lux's Mother, Advocate of Lux's Law:
"We want this law passed so that no one else has to go through this. If you want your loved one cremated, they should be able to be cremated and you not have any doubts that any part of them is missing."
11. Close of Lux's footprints
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOTS 11 and 13++
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Doneysha Smith, Lux's Mother, Advocate of Lux's Law:
"I will continue to say that we're very lucky that we even got my son back because a lot of these victims were pieces you will never be able to identify who they belong to or who they were. So we're not just doing this for Lux, we're doing this for anybody that was involved in this."
13. Logan shows lantern that contains Lux's urn
STORYLINE:
An Arkansas woman whose unborn child was among the human remains that were sold as part of a national scheme is pushing for a state law.

Doneysha Smith and her mother are advocating for a state law that would make it a felony to sell human remains that were supposed to be cremated or buried.

The proposed “Lux's law” is named after the unborn child that was sold by an Arkansas mortuary worker.

Smith found out a year after her stillbirth that Lux's body had been sold and that the cremated remains she had weren't his.

The proposal is called Lux's Law, after the name she gave her child. The Senate passed the measure this week and it's pending before a House panel.

Candace Chapman Scott, a former mortuary worker, pleaded guilty in federal court last year to charges that she sold 24 boxes of stolen body parts and fetal remains to a Pennsylvania man for nearly $11,000. The remains included Lux's body.





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