University of Florida professor Joseph Warner was arrested Sept. 3 after police discovered preserved brains, heads, arms and other body parts at his house stored in Tupperware containers.
Some of the more than dozen body parts were labeled as university property, police said.
Warner told police he didn’t have a license to keep them in his house.
Warner, 49, was an assistant professor of neurology at the university since 1988, but was fired Tuesday following the arrest.
Warner told officers he “conducted research at his home, including dissections of human and animal body parts,” a police report said.
The professor’s unusual collection was discovered when police responded to a domestic battery complaint from his wife, Debra.
Adding to the charges of illegal storage and preservation of human remains and domestic battery are illegal possession of a large supply of weapons and ammunition, including military ordinance weapons. Court records show Warner is a sport shooter.
A former colleague of Warner’s, assistant professor of anatomy Dr. John Aris, was quick to defend the professor.
“Joseph is the author of many texts on neuro-anatomy, and I believe he was storing the parts to prepare anatomical drawings, not for experimentation,” Aris said. “The parts were preserved in a low-toxic fixative that would allow him to take them out and examine them for accurate figures and diagrams.”
Although Aris admits Warner did not have permission to take home the body parts, he does not agree they should be declared “stolen” property.
“I do not think Joe was using the parts for anything terribly strange or perverse. I trust he was using them for accurate drawings for his texts,” Aris said.
The director of the university’s anatomical board, Dr. Lynn Romrell, sent an e-mail to Warner’s colleagues immediately following the arrest to dispel any strange rumors.
The e-mail stated that Warner did not have permission to remove the parts from university grounds and that he would be terminated immediately because he did not have tenure.
“I was more concerned about the domestic battery charges than the experimentation,” Aris said when asked about his initial reaction to the e-mail detailing Warner’s arrest. “That charge is more troubling to me, personally.”
The university was quick to dismiss Warner not only for his possession of human remains, but also to rid itself of any unpleasant publicity.
“I recognize that it has to be regulated so that companies will be comfortable donating to our school, so I definitely understand his danger from a logistic point of view,” Aris said.
Police Cpl. Keith Kameg struggled to keep the public from sensationalizing Warner’s actions.
“The goal of this investigation is to identify all the remains as best we can,” Kameg said. “We want to make sure they are treated respectfully.”
