by: Corey Elam, Jeremy Tanner

Posted: Nov 3, 2025 / 12:34 PM PST

Updated: Nov 3, 2025 / 12:34 PM PST

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (WDKY) — A Kentucky woman got a grisly surprise just days before Halloween when a package containing human body parts showed up at her door.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, the Christian County Coroner Scott Daniel told Nexstar’s WDKY that the body parts she’d received by mistake the previous day were from a cadaver and meant for surgical training, not transplant.

“We never know what kind of call we’re going to get, they’re all over the place, but last night was a little different,” Daniel told radio station WKDZ the following day. “We had a resident here in Hopkinsville who opened the box – it was supposed to be some urgent medical supplies – and when she opened the box she found human arms and fingers.”

The coroner said the woman was “obviously a little shook” after opening the cardboard box, which contained four fingers and two arms, packed in plastic ice packs.

Daniel said the woman called deputies with the Christian County Sheriff’s Office, who responded and notified the coroner’s office.

Officials reportedly took the cadaver parts to the morgue on Wednesday morning and contacted the carrier, making arrangements to get them to their proper destination.

Daniel said the parts were shipped from Nashville and wound up at the wrong address after a courier mix-up, adding that Hopkinsville officials ensured that the woman ultimately received the supplies she was waiting for, according to the Lexington-Herald Leader.

A Kentucky woman who was expecting a medicine delivery opened the package only to discover severed human arms and fingers on ice, according to a report.

After receiving the gruesome surprise on Wednesday, the woman called 911 from her home in Hopkinsville, The New York Times reported.

“We were expecting a delivery of urgent medication that was flown in on like a Nashville airport thing, and they delivered two boxes,” she said in the 911 call obtained by WSMV.

“We opened one box and it turned out to be human body parts for transplant, like it’s very medicinal,” she continued.

“We’re trying to know where it goes. We just didn’t want to be in the possession of body parts that don’t belong to us.”

Emergency responders then called in Christian County coroner Scott Daniel to retrieve the two arms and four digits, The Times reported.

Daniel took the limbs to the local morgue, where a courier retrieved them on Thursday. It is not immediately clear what courier delivered the alarming package, the outlet said.

The package full of body parts originated in Nashville and was slated to be delivered to a school or hospital for surgical training, the coroner said.

The body parts in the parcel came from four different bodies, Daniel said.

The woman, who was not identified, eventually had her time-sensitive medications and medical supplies delivered a day later, the coroner told the outlet.

“I didn’t ask,” he told the outlet in response to a question about the source of the body parts.

“I mean, I’d assume, obviously, I think they came from cadavers that had been donated.”

The coroner maintained that anyone who finds themselves in a similar gory predicament should call the authorities and avoid any extreme measures, such as refrigerating body parts.

“I think she did the right thing,” Daniel said.