JOLIET, Illinois (NYTIMES) - The family of a doctor in Illinois discovered more than 2,200 medically preserved foetuses at his property a little over a week after his death, the authorities said.

The Will County Coroner's Office received a call on Thursday from a lawyer representing the family of the doctor, Ulrich Klopfer, who died Sept 3, the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

While going through Klopfer's property, the family found 2,246 medically preserved foetal remains, the release said.

At the request of the family, the lawyer asked the coroner's office to remove the remains.

It was unclear how the foetuses were preserved, where on Klopfer's property they were discovered or where exactly the property was.

Public records showed the doctor owned a home in Crete, Illinois, a village over 50km south of Chicago.

The release only said officials responded to "an address in unincorporated Will County."

The coroner's office took possession of the remains.

The release said that the doctor's family was cooperating with the investigation and that there was no evidence that any medical procedures took place at the property.

A call to the Will County Sheriff's Office was not returned, and attempts to reach the Will County Coroner's Office were unsuccessful. A person who answered the phone at Klopfer's residence declined to comment.

Klopfer's licence history revealed that he was an osteopathic physician whose licence was suspended for failure to keep abreast of current professional theory or practice, according to Indiana state records.

He had a practice in South Bend, Indiana, and was also licensed to practice in Illinois, but his licence to practice there expired in the 1990s, according to state records.

State records showed that Klopfer had had licences in Fort Wayne and Gary, Indiana, where he performed abortions, The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reported.

It described him as "likely Indiana's most prolific abortion doctor in history with numbers going into the tens of thousands of procedures in multiple counties over several decades."

The Women's Pavilion, the abortion clinic where Klopfer worked, closed in 2016, The South Bend Tribune reported.

Klopfer stopped performing abortions in November 2015, the site said.