When a mortuary service provider defaults on their storage payments, you might have to assume the worst when clearing out their storage space. Unfortunately, one self storage owner in Hawaii found exactly what he wasn’t looking for.
As reported by Inside Self Storage:
Employees at Stor Keeper Self Storage in Honolulu uncovered decomposing body parts in a storage unit after the tenant went into default for non-payment. The human tissue was being kept in a freezer.
Facility staff entered the unit to conduct an inventory after the tenant, Bryan Avery, CEO of the Hawaii Institute of Anatomy, became 90 days past due on his rent. When facility owner Christopher Ulu called Avery about the freezer, Avery told him human tissue was stored inside. Ulu called police, who later opened the freezer, which had a horrible odor. The body parts were later identified by the medical examiner’s office as belonging to two individuals.
One silver lining of this particular situation is that the storage unit does not appear to have been auctioned off. The public relations of finding decomposing flesh in an auctioned off unit would not have been positive, to say the least. However, it would have made for a very catchy episode of storage wars.
One curious aspect of this case is that the original owner of the unit, Bryan Avery, is not expected to have charges filed against him. This is not the first incident Avery has had with taking body parts out of the morgue and storing them in unusual locations. I suppose there are more details explaining why he is not culpable for this kind of activity…which would be good to know.