Police photos showed what the family of an Indiana abortion doctor saw when they tried to clean up his garage and discovered the remains of 2,246 fetuses.
The gruesome discovery was made by the family after the death of Ulrich George Klopfer on Sept. 3 of natural causes. The family immediately contacted local law enforcement and cooperated with their investigation.
Police were stunned to find more than 2,400 remains in boxes and other containers on Klopfer’s property.
The doctor had performed abortions at his clinics in Gary, Indiana, and South Bend, Indiana, until his medical license was suspended in 2015 over medical reporting failures.
WBBM-TV published photographs from the police investigation showing how Klopfer had kept the fetal remains in the garage and in a car he owned.
The photographs were released after the case was closed without charges because Klopfer had already died.
“In the 31 years I’ve been in this job, I’ve never seen anything like this. Ever,” said Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley.
The fetal remains were given a dignified burial by local officials.
Why did he do it?
While Klopfer’s true motivation may never be known, some hints were left behind.
Dr. Geoffrey Cly, who worked as a backup doctor for Klopfer, told WBBM-TV that he thought the abortion doctor kept the fetuses as trophies.
“So here’s a guy who’s not trying to do the proper technique on a basic procedure, but yet can save fetal tissue in a very methodical, scientific, tracking way,” Cly said.
“The way he saved them, it’s like it’s something he wanted to preserve as a trophy, as a memory, for some reason,” he added.
Another hint came from an interview with a documentarian before he passed away. Klopfer, a German national, said that the fire-bombing of the German city Dresden during World War II was critical in forming his opinion of human nature.
