A federal court just confirmed that an Illinois coroner secretly kept family members’ skulls as “trophies” for decades — and then said the county cannot be held liable.

Story Snapshot

• A Seventh Circuit court opinion says former Boone County coroner Wesley Hyland kept several skulls as trophies, including teen Louise Betts’s.
• Louise’s brothers only learned in 2022 that her skull had been held back for more than 40 years and had to exhume her grave to reunite her remains.
• The court found Hyland’s actions were unlawful and against state law, yet still ruled the county is not financially liable under civil-rights law.
• The case exposes how local officials can violate families’ basic dignity without clear accountability, despite laws that should protect next of kin.

Coroner kept skulls as “trophies” and hid them for decades

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has now put in black and white what most Americans would struggle to believe: a former Boone County, Illinois, coroner named Wesley Hyland “kept several skulls as trophies from the deceased he examined,” and one of those skulls belonged to a young woman named Louise Betts.^[1] The judges describe his behavior as “abhorrent and macabre,” strong words coming from a federal court, not a tabloid headline.^[1]

Louise died as a teenager in the early 1980s, and her family buried her, believing her full body rested in that grave.^[1] For more than forty years, they visited that site with no idea the coroner had allegedly removed and kept her skull. Only after Hyland died did the truth begin to surface. Over four decades later, Boone County finally returned her skull to the Betts family, exposing how long this gruesome misconduct went unchecked.^[1]

Family forced to exhume grave while court shields the county

In November 2022, the current Boone County coroner contacted Louise’s brothers, Gary and Earl, and told them Hyland had possessed at least three skulls, including their sister’s.^[1] To give Louise a proper burial at last, the family had to go through the trauma of exhuming her casket so her skull could be placed with the rest of her remains.^[1] That is not a routine paperwork problem; it is a deep wound to a family’s grief, dignity, and faith in their local government.

The brothers then sued Boone County under the main federal civil-rights law, arguing that keeping Louise’s skull without telling them violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[1] They said this wrongful act amounted to a county policy of holding on to remains without notice, and they asked the courts to hold the county responsible. The district court threw out their case, and the Seventh Circuit has now affirmed that dismissal, even while accepting the ugly facts.

Court: law was broken, but no “official policy,” so no payout

The key legal question was not whether Hyland acted wrongly. The appellate judges say state law required coroners to return all bodily remains to the next of kin, and they flatly state that Hyland violated that law when he kept Louise’s skull.^[1] But under Supreme Court precedent known as Monell, a county is only on the hook under federal civil-rights law when an “official policy” or custom causes the violation, not when a single official secretly breaks the rules.^[1]

The court decided Hyland did the opposite of setting county policy. By hiding skulls as trophies, he was frustrating the official rule, not creating a new one.^[1] Because of that, the judges held that Boone County itself cannot be held liable in this lawsuit, even though the county later admitted the skull existed and eventually returned it. Hyland is dead, so there is no realistic way to hold him personally to account now, either in court or at the ballot box.

What this means for families, faith in institutions, and accountability

For many readers, this case confirms a grim pattern. Government insiders can commit shocking violations of basic decency, yet legal technicalities often shield the larger institution from responsibility. Here, the law on the books said the family’s rights mattered. The coroner had a duty to return remains. But because the misconduct was treated as one official’s unlawful act, the county walks away from civil-rights liability, even as the court calls his behavior “abhorrent.”^[1]

"The Coroner of Boone County, Illinois, engaged in abhorrent and macabre behavior. [He] kept several skulls as trophies from the deceased he examined." Chief Judge Brennan, in a fascinating opinion denying liability. 2-1, Judge Hamilton dissenting pic.twitter.com/kMRSN1MlzQ

— Eric W. (@EWess92) June 15, 2026

This should push conservatives to keep pressing for tighter controls and real transparency in local offices that handle human remains. Other Illinois cases have already exposed how weak tracking and oversight can lead to hundreds of families getting the wrong cremated remains and bodies stored in disgraceful conditions.^[9] Stronger chain-of-custody rules are now being written into state law to track remains from death to final rest, with real penalties for violators.^[10] But laws only matter if officials obey them and citizens can enforce them when they do not.

Sources:

[1] Web – The Coroner “Kept Several Skulls as Trophies from the Deceased He …

[9] YouTube – Dauphin County Coroner discusses ID of skull found

[10] Web – County Attorney