Body snatching

Body snatching is the illegal removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is different from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not exactly involve the removal of the corpse, but instead the theft from the burial site itself.^[1][2] The term 'body snatching' mainly means the removal and sale of corpses for the purpose of dissection or anatomy lessons in medical schools.^[3]

Body snatchers at work. A painting on the wall of a public house in Penicuik, Scotland

The first recorded case of body snatching was in China and it dates back to 506 BC, when Wu Zixu dug up the corpse of King Ping of Chu to beat his corpse.^[4]