CASCADE TOWNSHIP -- The investigation continues into how body parts were mistakenly delivered to a husband and wife expecting a table.

Ludivine Larmande and her husband ordered a table from eBay. When it was delivered, there were extra packages. Thinking they were extra table parts, they instead found a liver and part of a head.

"I just turned the other package over and I saw an ear through the plastic," Larmande told 24 Hour News 8. "We didn't open this package. We thought, 'this is really strange, this is weird.' I mean, what's going on?"

The parts were supposed to go to Corcoran Laboratories, Inc. in Traverse City, which leases the items to colleges and medical facilities for research and education.

Officials with DHL, the delivery service that brought the packages, tell us a company in China hired them to ship the items to the laboratory. Somehow a cardboard container holding five body parts opened and two were separated. A DHL delivery driver assumed those wrapped items were part of a table shipment going to the Larmandes.

After the mixup, the Larmandes called DHL whose officials told the couple to call police. Investigators with the Kent County Sheriff's Department brought the package to Dr. David Start who examined the body parts and determined they did not pose a biological hazard.

"They appeared to be fixed in a process called plastination, where the organ has gone through several steps of fixing or preserving the organ, and it's turned into a plastic-type material," adds Dr. Start. "The specimens are museum-type quality. Very good quality, anatomic specimens, something used in a museum exhibition or an anatomy department for teaching."

Federal officials tell us when body parts don't pose a biological hazard, they are not subject to certain regulations.

DHL says it is approved by the US Department of Transportation to ship diagnostic parts, though regulations require items are properly packaged and identified. 24 Hour News 8 found many companies will not ship human parts, including UPS or FedEx.

Inside WOODTV.com:

Pictures of the body parts  

(DISCLAIMER - THE PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC)