By Jennifer Lilonsky (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jan 15, 2013 05:31 PM EST

The thought of heads in packages-an eerie thought on its own---might also spark a more comedic memory of a title to a 1997 film starring Joe Pesci, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag.

But the scene was a little different at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago where a package of 18 heads was sent from Rome to be cremated after being used for medical research abroad.

The 18 heads were not found in a duffel bag, but rather embalmed and packaged into three blue coolers shipped from Rome on Lufthansa Airlines a week before Christmas, according to Cook County medical examiner's office chief of investigations Tony Brucci.

Earlier in the day it was unclear as to the reasoning behind their mysterious appearance.

Spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office Mary Paleologos said that the shipment was detained in late December because it did not arrive with the proper paperwork.

After the news hit the presses today, the company that was meant to receive the shipment presented the proper paperwork, Paleologos said.

Officials also said that the dismembered heads were labeled as human specimens but the containers holding them came as a regular cargo shipment.

There's nothing illegal about it either-hard to believe considering all the travel restrictions now in place.

"The embalmed heads are anatomical specimens used for research and were properly preserved, wrapped and labeled when they arrived at the airport from a medical research facility in Rome," Paleologos said in a statement. "The heads were detected when the containers were routinely X-rayed as they passed through U.S. Customs."

The containers were being stored in the Cook County morgue while the matter was investigated by authorities but Paleologos says that the heads will proceed to be cremated.

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