/ AP
Monarch rejected the remains and notified North Dakota's Department of Environmental Quality, which is investigating. An agency spokeswoman declined to comment during an active investigation. In its response, Sanford Health has said the body part was"clearly tagged" as"human tissue for research," and"was the type of routine biological material inherent in a medical and teaching facility like Sanford that Monarch guaranteed it would safely and promptly dispose ."
"You can clearly see it's a torso" in photos that Monarch took when it discovered the remains, Cardenas said. Sanford Health's attorneys say Healthcare Environmental Services, which is countersuing Monarch and Cardenas,"never removed body parts" from Monarch's facility, and that Monarch"must have disposed of them."