A Russian woman is being accused by her cryonics tycoon ex-husband of raiding his cryogenics lab and stealing brains and frozen cadavers of wealthy people hoping to be 'brought back to life.'
Danila Medvedev, 41, claims the transportation of the bodies was organized by his ex-wife Valeria Udalova, 61, who gathered some staff from her company to assist her.
Police intercepted the trucks with cryogenic patients in Dewar tanks full of liquid nitrogen shortly after the raid at KrioRus. Some of the corpses stolen belonged to wealthy Americans and Brits, according to The Times.
KrioRus estimates that it has preserved over 80 remains, including brains and full bodies. The company refers to these cadavers as "patients," one-third of which are foreigners.
It is still unclear whether the transportation of the cadavers and brains damaged any chances of revival, according to Medvedev. "It seems she doesn't care what happens to their chances of being revived," Medvedev told The Times.
An expert with KrioRus says during the heist, nitrogen inside the tanks was spilled which caused the human remains to reach higher than desired temperatures.
Cryonics technology seeks to extend lifespan and also utilizes frozen nitrogen to preserve dead bodies in hopes of one day being revived. Full body cryopreservation is estimated to cost around $35,000 and preservation of just the brain costs around $15,000.
By freezing the brain or body, it keeps it from naturally going through the decomposition process after death. Many hope cryogenics will allow the patient time for scientific technology to advance enough to bring them back or cure what they died from. About 165 people have already gone through this process in the United States, BBC reports.
Since the science is still somewhat new, it is unclear if the cryonics process will even be feasible for any chances of resurrection. Some experts believe that bringing these frozen cadavers back to life is not possible, others are more hopeful.
Udalova co-founded KrioRus with Medvedev back in 2005 but claims she was thrown out of the company unfairly. Both she and Medvedev claim they are the rightful owners of the assets and police are now investigating the conflicting claims.
With the help of staff at her company Open Cryonics, Udalova allegedly cut through a metal wall to enter into the storage facility before emptying the nitrogen out of several large Dewar tanks containing fully preserved human bodies, The Times reports. She also grabbed detached human brains from metal medical boxes during the heist.
She and her staff then hauled the tanks on trucks before driving off and were shortly intercepted by the authorities after KrioRus alerted them. An investigation is still ongoing but the cadavers have been returned to the facility.
KrioRus also cryogenically preserves pet remains for owners hoping to eventually bring them back to life. Currently, KrioRus estimates that they have ten dogs, 19 cats, four birds, two rabbits, five hamsters, and a chinchilla, The Times reports.
"There are a lot of orders from different countries, especially from dog and cat owners. This is the reason why Medvedev wanted to take KrioRus for himself," Udalova told Times Now News.
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