Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Hancock is one of more than five dozen family members currently suing the family that operated the now shut-down Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. In 2018, Schum got a call from FBI Special Agent John Busch, who told her that Sunset Mesa had sold not just her friend's body, but many others. The Green Funeral. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. That's part of my nightmare. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. In one instance, on March 10, 2019, Staci Kent was significantly delayed to the scene because the van she was using to pick up the body had a dead battery, bald tires and was buried in snow, prosecutors alleged. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. (Google). Reuters has reported in a report that you can read here that the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home of Montrose, Colorado, and its associated business, Donor Services, remains under investigation by the FBI. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. Hess, along with her mother and father, are all named in a lawsuit, which accuses them of using a backroom to dismember cadavers with a power saw and stack body parts in coolers. (William Woody, Special to the Colorado Sun), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, (720) 263-2338 Call, text, Signal or WhatsApp, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. On July 2, Jeffersonville Police officials announced dozens of bodies were found decomposing inside a funeral home in the Southern Indiana city, just across the river from Louisville. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. They were affiliated with her funeral business. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. It is unbelievable, said Dave Teselle, a Denver-based attorney who represents Hancock and more than five dozen other families in a claim against the owners of Sunset Mesa and the companies who are accused of buying the body parts. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. A funeral home in Indiana is under investigation after allegedly falling behind on processing dead bodies for an unknown period of time, but at least a few months. . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. DALLAS The Texas Funeral Service Commission says it has opened an investigation into allegations of the mishandling of corpses at one of the most high-profile mortuaries in the state. I just had the impression that something wasnt right all along. He said neither Hess nor Koch told him that his friends body parts would be sold. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. GYPSUM The operating license for Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum has been summarily suspended by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies following an investigation that revealed disturbing conditions at an associated funeral home in Leadville. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. On Oct. 2, the Lake and Eagle county sheriffs departments executed a search warrant at the Bailey-Kent Funeral Home in Leadville, where deputies encountered a strong odor of decomposition, according to an Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by the states Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration, before finding: In addition to the Leadville funeral home, the state issued suspension orders for the Kent Funeral Home Gypsum. This content was originally published here. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. Contact7 Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski traveled to Montrose and talked to more than a half dozen family members now victims about what they describe as a scheme to profit from their pain. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Hes already facing charges of official misconduct and perjury stemming from allegations last year that he sent his wife Staci to multiple death scenes even though she wasnt authorized to serve as a deputy coroner. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. A judge sentenced a Colorado funeral-home owner who carved up corpses and sold parts of them without families' permission to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, according to the Department of Justice. Hess and Koch also shipped bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonged to people who died from, infectious diseases including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, despite certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free, authorities said. "This is the most emotionally draining. While Sunset Mesa legally is permitted to own and operate both businesses, Reuters found that there was no other active instance where a funeral home, crematory and body broker had the same owner and were in the same facility. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. Thats when E.W. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. In addition, a lawsuit has been filed by Shirley Hollenback and her daughter alleging that the remains she received purported to be the cremation ashes of her husband are somebody elses remains and not those of her husband. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. The true-crime podcast "Criminal," which covered the story in its 131st episode, reports that when Grand Junction resident Debbie Schum visited Sunset Mesa after the death of her friend in 2017, the funeral home's director, Megan Hess, told Schum that she could not provide cremation services unless Schum paid her $1,000 upfront. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. Both Reh and Cavanagh said they want to get the ashes analyzed at the University of Colorado to see if they actually belong to their babies. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. All rights reserved. I saw a lot inside as far as, you know, body parts and things like that. She continued, But I was oblivious to what was going on. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. In another call two months later, Staci Kent responded to a death scene without a body bag, the indictment states, which led to an argument with law enforcement. But selling body parts such as heads, arms and spines which is what Hess did for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. There are no ethics there when you do that.. The surgical-training companies and other firms which bought the arms, legs, heads and torsos from Hess did not know they had been fraudulently obtained, prosecutors said. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved There are many events that have unfolded over the past couple weeks involving Downard Funeral Home, some including Idaho State University (ISU). Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. During her speech at Diamond's funeral, her partner in crime, Silk, implied that there was foul play involved in her death and urged for an investigation. It described a body broker as a company that acquires dead bodies, dissects them and sells the parts for profit to medical researchers, training organizations and other buyers.. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Market data provided by Factset. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. The body was identified as that of 42 . Before he died in 2016, the 78-year-old retired contractor saved $200 on cremation by agreeing to pledge parts of his body to Donor Services. The gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. The federal case was triggered by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series about the sale of body parts in the United States, a virtually unregulated industry. In their filing, prosecutors stressed the "macabre nature" of Hess' scheme and described it as one of the most significant body parts cases in recent U.S. history. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. The allegations of offering free services and then selling body parts without the knowledge of the client family is beyond my scope of thinking as to what funeral directors should be doing. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. Legal Statement. There is also evidence of Donor Services shipping at least 26 boxes containing body parts to various parts of the world in 2016 according to evidence that has been recovered. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. Hancock is one of many family members who has learned the cremains she was given by the owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose contained items and materials that were not her husband. . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. The Colorado Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration has no employees dedicated solely to it and an annual budget of less than $85,000. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . Hess made donating a body online easy. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. It was kind of creepy.. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. A funeral director who also works as a body broker could have a financial incentive to sell a body for its valuable parts rather than provide an inexpensive burial, for instance. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. The owners of that funeral home are facing charges of desecrating human remains more than four months after investigators found the body, which had been stored in a non-refrigerated room for years. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. Legal Statement. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. Funeral homes in Leadville and Gypsum are under criminal investigation after authorities this month found an unrefrigerated body, bags of unlabeled cremains, an abandoned stillborn infant. Before he died in 2016, the 78-year-old retired contractor saved $200 on cremation by agreeing to pledge parts of his body to Donor Services. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. Peck was given another six months of probation. "Hess and Koch used their funeral home at times to essentially steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent and forged donor forms," prosecutor Tim Neff said in a court filing. Ducks, Used body bags, medical gloves and other surgical equipment with dried bodily fluid on them piled on the floor, Bodily fluids leaking out of a body bag containing an individual who had not been refrigerated, A container of animal remains leaking fluids, Several bodies in refrigeration wrapped in sheets or blankets without identifying tags or paperwork, An unmarked casket containing a stillborn infant that was abandoned, the suspension order states, Paperwork scattered several feet deep on the floor. Kent has not been arrested in this latest incident and no charges have been filed, though the two funeral homes business licenses have been suspended by the state. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. . They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems,Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Ariz., and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association, said. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. The investigation of Kents funeral homes began in February after the sheriffs office received a complaint by a client regarding the handling of human remains. Colorado regulators can now inspect funeral homes and crematories without owners' permission The state has long had some of the laxest laws in the nation surrounding funeral homes Joe. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. The emotional, daylong hearing brought to a close a five-year legal odyssey that began when the FBI raided the funeral home in February 2018, following a Reuters investigation that found Sunset Mesa to be unlike any other business in the country. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. N.Y. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Reuters began examining the Hess companies more than a year ago as part of the news agencys exploration of the human body trade, a virtually unregulated industry that largely operates in the shadows. Chantal Reh. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jeffersonville funeral home is under investigation after the owner allegedly got behind on processing bodies, which began stacking up for an unknown period of. On at least three occasions, Staci Kent allegedly responded to calls from law enforcement requesting a coroner at a death scene, according to the indictment. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. "No, I did not," Hancock responded. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Few state laws provide any oversight. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. In one instance, on March 10, 2019, Staci Kent was significantly delayed to the scene because the van she was using to pick up the body had a dead battery, bald tires and was buried in snow, prosecutors alleged. Part 8: Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary-body broker, including allegations of deceptive marketing and an account of how gold dental work was removed from corpses and sold. Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborn's cremains mixed. GRAND JUNCTION A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. When Reuters reported earlier this year about the unusual twin businesses of owner Megan Hess, federal agents raided the facility and state regulators ordered the funeral home to be shut down. But it provided an important public service, she said. MONTROSE, Colo. (CBS4) - Federal authorities raided a funeral home in Montrose on Tuesday, at which the owner is under investigation for a side-business donating bodies for education and. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. A spokeswoman for Donate LifeAmerica said in an email that Hesss firm is not a federally designated organ procurement organization and has no permission to use the Donate Life brand. E.W. Colorado Ordway Funeral Homes Eaton Family Funeral Home Eaton Family Funeral Home in Ordway 202 E 3rd St Ordway, CO 81063 (719) 267-4221 Click to show location on map Zoom About Eaton Family Funeral Home We understand that losing a loved one can be a very stressful time. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. (Reuters) -A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts. Reuters could find no other operation active in the United States that houses a funeral home, crematory and body broker in the same facility and under the same ownership. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. Finally, after a month, she got Staci Kent on the phone and laid into her, asking why she hadnt heard anything about her sons cremains. Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images. This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. On Oct. 2, the Lake and Eagle county sheriffs departments executed a search warrant at the Bailey-Kent Funeral Home in Leadville, where deputies encountered a strong odor of decomposition, according to an Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by the states Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration, before finding: In addition to the Leadville funeral home, the state issued suspension orders for the Kent Funeral Home Gypsum. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. Koch said she had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in, Escher said. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. He had been dismembered. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed..

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