Will County

Indiana Lawmakers Demand Probe After Fetal Remains Found Inside Illinois Home

Investigators from the Will County sheriff's and coroner's offices discovered 2,246 medically preserved fetal remains at a rural property in Crete.

Four Indiana lawmakers are demanding an investigation to determine if more than 2,200 medically preserved fetal remains found at the Illinois home of a deceased former Indiana abortion doctor were illegally transported across state lines. 

State Rep. Ron Bacon and three fellow Republican lawmakers issued a statement Sunday saying the Indiana attorney general's office should investigate the abortion clinics in Allen, Lake and St. Joseph's counties where Dr. Ulrich Klopfer worked.

The attorney general's office hadn't responded to a request for comment as of Monday morning. Klopfer died Sept. 3.

The attorney for Klopfer's family said over the weekend they had no idea the remains were inside the doctor's rural Will County home.

Klopfer was a doctor at an abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana, until his license was suspended indefinitely in 2016, NBC station WNDU reported.

An attorney handling the family's estate called the Will County Coroner's Office on Sept. 12, and informed staff that fetal remains were discovered while going through the doctor's personal property. The attorney and family requested that the remains be removed properly.

Investigators from the Will County sheriff's and coroner's offices discovered 2,246 medically preserved fetal remains at a rural property in the 2900 block of East Pine Court in Crete. The coroner's office has since taken possession of the remains.

"No one has any answers," said Kevin Bolger, a criminal defense attorney representing Klopfer's family. "It is what it is. Like I said, the familly is cooperating 100%. They're working with the coroner and the police, and as far as I'm concerned, it's resolved at this point."

In 2016, Indiana's attorney general alleged Klopfer violated state law nine times by failing to provide qualified personnel to monitor patients undergoing surgical abortion procedures.

Bolger, the family's attorney, said the family is doing the best they can given the circumstances.

Neighbors told NBC 5 on Saturday that the doctor was nice, but quiet, and added they were disgusted and shocked at the discovery of the remains.

"To hear something like this, I can't take that," a neighbor named Lily said. "It's just a little bit too much for me."

There was no evidence that medical procedures were conducted at the rural Crete property, police said in a news release issued on Friday.

"I've been doing this for over 40 years, and before that, I was a Chicago policeman," Bolger, the family's attorney, said. "I thought I saw it all, and obviously I didn't."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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