June 13, 2023
Black Employee Hazed With 3 Decapitated Heads On His Desk, After Filing A Workplace Complaint
After complaining about the care and condition of bodies donated to his company, Dale Wheatley says three severed heads were left next to his desk in retaliation for discussing the situation.
According to People, Wheatley is an employee who works for the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois. Wheatley is the transportation coordinator at the Chicago-based company that distributes human body parts for medical research.
The transportation coordinator said he filed a police report after the incident. The heads were placed in a blue plastic storage tub by his desk.
Wheatley has been working at the company for five years and said the body parts had never been placed by his desk before. He said they are usually stored in designated areas before he gets the body parts to deliver to medical schools. After the students dissect and study the parts, they are collected and cremated, and the ashes are returned to the families.
“At first I was confused,” Wheatley said. “My boss walked by, and I asked him why the heads were at my desk. He said they need to get back with their bodies so we can send them to cremation.
“I asked him why they were at my desk,” Wheatley continued. “And he said, ‘I don’t know Dale, there’s a lot of strange things going on.'”
The attorney for Wheatley, David Fish, told People that this incident occurred after his client filed a complaint that donated bodies were not properly embalmed or stored, causing the body parts to rot and mold. According to his attorney, rats had allegedly chewed through storage bags and bitten the feet of the cadavers’ feet.
“The body goes to waste if it’s not properly cared for,” Fish said.
Wheatley, 37, also viewed rolled-up bunches of smoldering sage throughout the office as harassment, thinking that the alleged perpetrators were trying to ward off evil spirits, meaning him. Wheatley reportedly filed complaints with the Cook County Medical Examiner and the Illinois Department of Public Health.