NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A New York funeral home owner has reportedly pleaded guilty to selling the bones of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke.
Sources told the New York Post Timothy O'Brien, who owns East Harlem's New York Mortuary Service, pleaded guilty in a closed court proceeding to removing Cooke's bones and selling them for $7,000, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
None of the authorities involved in the case would comment, the Post said.
O'Brien, his wife and an employee of his mortuary are now reported to be cooperating with authorities who are investigating and prosecuting members of the stolen body-part ring, the newspaper said.
Cooke died of cancer at age 95 in 2004. Investigators said not only were his bones illegally harvested and sold for medical use, papers were forged knocking 10 years off his age and changing the cause of death from cancer to a heart attack.
