A Texas man faces a charge of abuse of a corpse after authorities say he tossed a bucket containing suspected human remains over a fence at the FBI’s Dallas field office and uploaded a video of the act to YouTube.
Michael Chadwick Fry, 41, was taken into custody Thursday and faces two counts of abuse of a corpse along with tampering with evidence, according to a news release from the Bartonville Police Department.
The case began on March 16 when a Bartonville police officer responded to a call from Fry’s mother. She told police her son had asked her for money to rent a U-Haul. When she questioned the reason, he said he “had a body that needed to be moved,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
Authorities said Fry then became “irate” and left the house. Shortly after, the officer received information from Fry’s sister stating he had “filmed himself on YouTube” at the Dallas FBI field office, the affidavit noted.
According to the affidavit, the video shows Fry tossing a large, sealed white bucket over a fence into the FBI building’s secure parking lot.
In the video, Fry said he wanted to force the FBI to step in “in what he describes as wrongdoing by Denton County officials from a past arrest,” the affidavit stated. The nature of the alleged wrongdoing remains unclear.
An FBI special agent reported that “the bucket contained numerous bones” believed to be human, the affidavit said. Officials are awaiting further forensic analysis to confirm.
Fry also uploaded another video on YouTube that appeared to show a human skull inside his Denton County residence.
His mother later told police she discovered three cemetery searches in her vehicle’s GPS history — one in Arlington, Texas, and two in Oklahoma City. She also said she found a shovel that had not previously been at the home and noted that Fry had recently started locking the backyard shed, which he had not done before, according to the affidavit.
During the joint investigation by Bartonville police and FBI agents, authorities said Fry posted additional videos online showing separate human remains and an urn containing ashes.
Investigators later found that Fry had taken an urn containing human remains from a cemetery in Oklahoma City — an incident that Oklahoma City police had been investigating in February, according to Bartonville police.
FBI agents also uncovered evidence at a cemetery in Denton, Texas, “indicating that a coffin containing human remains had been removed from a mausoleum,” Bartonville police said.
Authorities have not revealed whose remains were involved or why they believe Fry may have targeted them.
Police said the investigation is ongoing, and officials have notified the next of kin.
According to booking records, Fry remained in custody Sunday on a $30,000 surety bond. It is not immediately clear whether he has secured legal representation.