The Bartonville man accused of stealing human remains from cemeteries in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as posting them online, has now been indicted.
According to Denton County records, 42-year-old Michael Chadwick Fry of Bartonville was indicted on three counts of abuse of a corpse and two counts of tampering with evidence.
Fry was originally arrested in March after an FBI operation alleged he unlawfully dug up and took a body from a Denton cemetery.
According to the Bartonville Police Department, the investigation was initiated after Fry’s mother reported to police her son had requested money to rented a U-Haul, which he needed to move a body.
His mother believed Fry could have been going through a psychotic episode at the time.
Throughout the investigation, it was revealed that Fry had a grievance with Denton County officials in regard to a previous case involving Fry and one of his friends.
Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a video, which had been posted to YouTube, from Fry’s sister that allegedly showed Fry throwing a bucket of the bones he had dug up over the fence at the FBI Dallas Field Office.
The joint investigation between the FBI and Bartonville PD revealed that Fry had posted more videos of himself posing next to a human skull and an urn of stolen ashes at his home in Bartonville.
According to officials, the ashes were stolen from a cemetery in Oklahoma in February.
Fry later admitted to stealing a casket containing remains from a mausoleum in Denton and an urn containing ashes from the cemetery in Oklahoma City. He also faces felony indictments in Oklahoma.
Police determined his motive was to grab the attention of the FBI in hopes they would look into what he considered ongoing corruption in Denton County.
Fry has a long history of arrests in Denton County.
Before the recent fiasco, he was booked into the Denton County Jail on March 20, 2022 on a criminal mischief charge that occurred on Oct. 26, 2021.
Before that, he had been arrested 28 times by the Denton County Sheriff’s Office, Denton PD and Argyle PD dating back to Aug. 5, 2003.
Some charges he has collected over the years have been possession of alcohol by a minor, burglary, engaging in organized criminal activity, arson, theft, terroristic threats, driving while intoxicated, resisting arrest and his most recent charge: abuse of corpse without legal authority.
