Man found guilty of dumping severed heads, body parts in Arizona, prosecutor says

A man who owned a Seattle business that managed donated cadavers for research has been found guilty in the dumping of severed human heads and limbs in remote areas of Arizona, a prosecutor says.

Walter Harold Mitchell, 61, was found guilty of 29 counts of “abandonment or concealment of a dead body” according to a Sept. 29 press release by the Yavapi County Attorney’s Office.

The case case began unfolding in December 2020 when Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to a location outside of Prescott, Arizona after two woodcutters found a human leg and arm, according to the release.

Upon arriving deputies found 24 human body parts and the following day, two hunters found two severed heads. A total of five heads were located after law enforcement personnel scoured the area, according to the news release.

The bodies were marked with silver tags and serial numbers, officials said. There was also a label for FutureGenex at the scene, the Seattle-based business owned by Mitchell.

The business had closed in April 2020 and the man took the donor parts — packed on dry ice inside a U-Haul — when he left Washington for Arizona, according to the news release.

Once in Arizona, he stored the body parts in a freezer inside a storage shed, before dumping them outside of Prescott in November 2020, the release says. He then moved from Chino Valley to Scottsdale, where he was eventually arrested, authorities said.

Using a search warrant, investigators found evidence that linked White to the scene and documents associating him with donor parts and the FutureGenex company.

White is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 31.

Dennis McGrane. the chief deputy county attorney, said he “hopes this verdict will bring some justice and closure to those families whose loved ones were donated for medical research and treated so disrespectfully,” according to the news release.

Prescott is about 100 miles north of Phoenix.