Two men, aged 47 and 38, and a 43-year-old woman visited a funeral home in Browns Plains, Queensland, just before 1pm on Friday to attend a viewing for a deceased relative.
Esther Swanborough, the owner of the Eastern Road funeral home, said a man viewing his deceased father's body asked her to leave the room for several minutes.
Ms Swanborough told Nine News the trio was acting strangely when she returned.
She said she called the police after she checked the corpse and noticed someone had attempted to take a piece of tissue from the deceased.
"They were acting very suspicious and I said to them, 'what have you done?'" Ms Swanborough said.
"I was shocked that this has happened. We've never seen anything like this before."
The man alleged to have interfered with the corpse fled the scene before police arrived, but was later arrested at home.
Police arrested the other man and the woman at the scene.
All three have been charged with misconduct with a corpse.
They were also charged with entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence and being armed with intent to enter a premises and commit an indictable offence.
They are due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday.
17°C