Rats Chewed on Corpses, Coroner Says

Rats have gnawed 12 bodies held in long-term storage by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, the department’s director said Monday, but he insisted the infestation is under control.

Exterminators were called to set traps Feb. 13 after rat droppings were found in the long-term storage crypt where dozens of unclaimed or unidentified bodies were kept, said Anthony T. Hernandez, director of the department of coroner. More traps were set Monday.

But a coroner’s employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times that the traps were not set until last week--even though workers had complained of improper storage of some bodies a year ago.

One of those who learned recently of the grisly rodent problem was Olga Jauregui. She was trying to scrape together enough money or charity to bury her stepbrother when she received a call from an official at the coroner’s office.

“He said: ‘I have something really bad to tell you about your brother,’ she recalled. “I thought, My God, he’s already dead. What could be so bad?”

She soon learned. Her stepbrother Robert Salandino’s corpse had been gnawed on by rats.

County documents on Salandino’s case indicate that workers discovered rodent damage to his face, mouth and right arm March 20, nearly two months after he was found dead, the victim of a homicide. Officials had removed his body after his stepsister agreed to make burial arrangements.

A coroner’s employee “was instructed to complete an incident report and initiate a full inspection of the [long-term storage crypt] to see if any other bodies had been impacted,” David Campbell, a coroner’s office spokesman, wrote in case notes to the file.

The inspection showed rats had partially eaten 12 bodies, including Salandino’s, at times gnawing through sheets of thick plastic in which bodies are wrapped to retard decomposition.

Photographs obtained by The Times document damage to five bodies, which have been stored a few months to seven years. The bodies are in various stages of decomposition because refrigeration does not stop the process, only slows it.

Hernandez said it can take months to identify or find relatives of the dead and that his office puts off cremation at the county morgue because he would rather relatives receive a loved one’s body than a box of ashes.

About 60 bodies are housed in the long-term crypt where the rats were found, which is separate from the other crypts where bodies are initially kept.

Workers complain that the bodies ought to be disposed of more quickly or better storage techniques should be used.

“The bottom line is that the bodies are not being embalmed, disinfected or preserved,” the anonymous source said. He said the resulting rat infestation is a public health hazard.

“What if we get bitten by them? Or what if they go into the community and are eaten by a domestic cat?” he said.

Hernandez said he does not think decomposition attracted the rats. Instead, he thinks they entered through a crack in the wall, which he has had patched.

“I think somebody’s getting a little excited about what took place,” he said. It is the first time in 30 years that the office has been infested by rats, he said.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is asking for an investigation and report in two weeks.

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Times staff writer Joe Mathews contributed to this report.