The owner of a Texas mortuary faces charges after authorities allege she conducted “experiments” on corpses and tampered with death certificates.
Adeline Ngan-Binh Bui has been charged with abuse of corpse and five counts of tampering with governmental records, online court records show. She was booked into the Travis County Jail on April 18.
Bui’s attorney, Jessica Huynh, tells PEOPLE her client has since been released on $27,500 bond and has not yet entered a plea. Bui is scheduled to appear in court on May 9, according to online court records.
On April 2, the Texas Funeral Service Commission contacted the Austin Police Department’s Homicide Unit regarding allegations that Capital Mortuary Services and its owner, Bui, were “engaging in criminal conduct including abuse of corpse and tampering with governmental records,” a spokesperson for the Austin Police Department said in a statement shared with PEOPLE.
Police said their investigation resulted in a search warrant being served at the business on April 10. The evidence police allegedly found led to Bui’s arrest, per the statement. Police declined to share further information regarding the investigation, but noted it remains ongoing.
However, further details were released by authorities in Bui’s arrest affidavit obtained by KVUE, KXANand Fox 7 Austin.
According to the arrest affidavit, the initial April 2 complaint came from a former employee at the Texas Funeral Service Commission who claimed Bui had “fraudulently initiated and obtained at least 10 death certificates under his name,” KXAN reported. The employee also said that Bui, 50, had allegedly been conducting “experiments” on the arms of corpses.
The “experiments” allegedly included Bui injecting formaldehyde into the arms to study “the effect it had over time on severed extremities,” the affidavit states, according to KXAN.
After the “experiments” were completed, Bui would allegedly let “the severed body parts to be placed in the crematory retort, where the body parts in their dissected and disturbed state, would be cremated,” authorities said in the affidavit, per KVUE.
Bui is also accused of documenting the alleged experiments through notes and photos shared to a message thread titled “Freedom Art Experiment,” according to a December 2023 screenshot that the former employee shared with police, per the affidavit cited by KXAN.
According to the affidavit obtained by Fox 7 Austin, the photos showed what police claimed were severed and detached arms in various stages of decomposition.
When police executed the search warrant on April 10, they spoke with Bui, who allegedly admitted to using the former embalmer’s name on death certificates without his knowledge, Fox 7 Austin reported, citing the affidavit.
According to KVUE, Bui also allegedly confessed to ordering her staff to conduct the “experiments” on about 15 bodies with the permission of MedtoMarket, which had a contract with the business for “transportation and cremation services,” per the affidavit.
The outlet reported that police spoke with MedtoMarket, which denied the company’s involvement in “experimental testing” but said that it was aware of arms being embalmed to see how long they could preserve them, per the affidavit.
According to the affidavit cited by Fox 7 Austin, authorities also allegedly found power tools with human remains on them during the search of the business.
“Our criminal justice system is based on the presumption of innocence and a careful, critical evaluation of the evidence, facts, and their sources,” Huynh says in a statement shared with PEOPLE.
“This case involves complexities that are not immediately apparent and should not be sensationalized. Our legal team remains fully committed to defending and advocating for our client, Adeline Bui, with the expectation of fairness and due process,” the attorney concluded.