A Texas man is facing felony charges after allegedly hurling a bucket of human bones over the fence of the FBI’s Dallas field office — and filming the whole thing.
Michael Chadwick Fry, 44, of Bartonville, was arrested on two counts of abuse of a corpse and one count of tampering with evidence following what authorities describe as one of the stranger incidents in recent North Texas memory. The bucket, tossed onto federal property, contained numerous human bones that were immediately seized and sent for forensic analysis. Investigators say Fry believed the act would, in his own words, summon federal agents.
The Video That Started It All
Fry didn’t just throw the bucket and walk away. He recorded himself doing it and posted the footage online — a decision that, predictably, did not work in his favor. In the video, he can be heard saying “We send Elizabeth over the FBI fence…” — a reference, investigators later determined, to a human skull he’d been keeping at his Bartonville home.
Separate videos recovered from Fry’s YouTube account showed him holding that skull and referring to it by name: “Elizabeth Virginia Lyon.” It’s unclear how long he had been in possession of the remains or where, exactly, they came from — though investigators are working to piece that together.
A Body That Needed Moving
The case gets stranger from there. At some point before his arrest, Fry reportedly told his mother he needed money to rent a U-Haul because he had a body that “needed to be moved.” Investigators subsequently found GPS searches on his devices for cemeteries in both Arlington and Oklahoma City. A brand-new shovel was also recovered.
That detail — the shovel — is the kind of thing that tends to stick. It suggests premeditation, or at minimum, a plan. Authorities have since confirmed that remains were stolen from an Oklahoma City cemetery, and that a mausoleum at a Denton cemetery was also disturbed during the investigation.
Not His First Brush With the Law
How bad is his record? Fry has accumulated more than two dozen arrests since 2003, spanning charges that include assault, burglary, and criminal mischief. In 2018, he made local headlines for a different reason entirely — ramming a truck into the Dallas building housing a Fox television affiliate. That incident alone might have been the defining chapter of another person’s story. For Fry, it’s a footnote.
Still, the current charges carry real weight. Under Texas law, abuse of a corpse is a state jail felony — punishable by anywhere from 180 days to two years behind bars and a fine of up to $10,000. With two counts on the table, plus the tampering charge, Fry is looking at potentially significant exposure.
What Comes Next
Forensic analysis of the recovered bones is ongoing. Authorities haven’t confirmed whether the remains belong to a single individual or multiple people, and the full scope of how Fry obtained them remains under investigation. The FBI, having literally had the evidence thrown at them, is involved.
It’s worth noting that Fry’s stated goal — getting federal attention — did, technically, work. Just not the way he seems to have intended. Whether that counts as a victory is a question best left to him and whatever attorney he manages to retain.
Sometimes the strangest cases are the ones that don’t require any embellishment at all.
