A Texas man has been charged with abuse of a corpse after he allegedly stole bones and ashes from at least two cemeteries and then tossed a bucket of bones over a fence at the FBI’s Dallas field office — an act he filmed and posted on YouTube.
Michael Chadwick Fry was identified last week when law enforcement got a call that he had asked for money to rent a U-Haul to “move a body,” the Bartonville Police Department said. Shortly after that call, they “received credible information” about the bucket of bones thrown over a fence in Dallas.
Investigators found videos held posted online showing “separate human remains and an urn of ashes” at his home in Bartonville, where they subsequently executed a search warrant and arrested Fry.
Detectives later learned that the urn had been stolen from a cemetery in Oklahoma City in February, while FBI agents found evidence that a coffin containing remains had been stolen from a cemetery in Denton, Texas.
An arrest affidavit said that it was Fry’s mother who made the initial phone call to police, saying her son wanted money to move a body, according to KDFW. Fry was still at her home when she called police, but he “became irate” and left before police arrived. Police sent out an alert to neighboring agencies to keep an eye out for suspicious activities.
Then, it was Fry’s sister who told authorities about his YouTube videos, the affidavit said.
The video in question — titled “we sent Elizabeth over the FBI fence to summon them by force” — shows Fry first speaking to a gate agent at the FBI field office and complaining that he asked for an investigation into something online but never got a response. The gate agent gives him a number to call to check on the status of his report.
The Fry, wearing a t-shirt featuring a WFAA story about someone being fatally shot during a traffic stop, drives a short distance away and throws the bucket over the fence, allegedly containing “Elizabeth’s remains.” The FBI confirmed that the bucket contained human remains.
Another video reportedly shows Fry with a human skull at his Bartonville home. Videos on his YouTube channel, called “Fry and Berto News! where we reveal mass killers,” feature multiple complaints about police and courts in the Denton area, alleging illegal activity — including “being serial killers and sexal [sic] predators” — claiming retaliations and illegal evictions.
It’s not clear who “Berto” is, but Fry crashed his truck into the KDFW building in 2018. After the crash, he threw sheets of paper onto the sidewalk, the station said, and left a bright orange duffel bag that prompted a visit from the bomb squad. The station said police determined Fry was upset about a 2012 police shooting that killed his friend, and he apologized to the station during a court hearing.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Michael Fry/YouTube]
