Students See Jesse Shipley's Brain in a Jar During Field Trip

by Amy Judd | October 28, 2010 at 11:44 am

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Fellow Students of Jesse Shipley Were Shocked to See His Brain in a Jar During a Field Trip to the Morgue

When parents Andre and Korisha Shipley buried their 17-year-old son Jesse after a 2005 car accident, they assumed that his body was once again intact after an autopsy was performed.

Well this was not the case as two months later, some students from Jesse's high school went on a field trip to the morgue as part of a forensic science club and saw their former student's brain in a jar with his name clearly labeled.

"They saw this jar with a brain in it labeled Jesse Shipley," recalls Korisha Shipley, whose daughter Shannon came home in tears that day delivering the news. "They knew Jesse and he knew them. They were looking at his brain, and his brain was looking right back at them," the father adds.

The family said they did not know Jesse did not have all his organs when he was buried and are now suing the city of Staten Island for emotional distress caused by the handling of their son's remains. They appeared in court yesterday, but nothing was decided and they were given another court date for January.

"As far as we understand, during an autopsy you cut open the body, you look for the cause of death, you check out the organs and you put them back in. In this case, it was a little more than that," Andre Shipley says.

It is completely within the medical examiner's right to remove and keep some of the organs for further testing, but now the question remains as to whether the parents should have been told their son was missing some organs when his body was released for burial.

Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist and a spokesperson for the National Association of Medical Examiners, says determining cause of death is not as simple as people think. He says it is common practice for medical examiners in the U.S. to save the brain and certain other organs when they think it's important.

The brain has to be preserved for at least two weeks in a formula before it can be examined.

"We have a certain authority to investigate death for public health and public safety reasons. That is a right pitted against the individual right, and sometimes that does upset families," he explains.

Some say the organs should not have been stored in a place where people could see them so easily, and the names should not be visible.

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, a forensic pathologist and attorney who reviews cases like these but is not involved in the Shipley case, says leaving the organs out in the open clearly labeled should not have happened.

"You're talking about a matter of sensitivity and common sense," Wecht says. "Certainly if you're going to have student visitors, then you should not have names and numbers available to see."