An agent with the FBI has interviewed at least four former employees who worked for funeral director and body broker Megan Hess, seeking information about how she operates her businesses, the former workers told Reuters. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. In 2009, Hess also created a nonprofit called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, d/b/a Donor Services, a body broker service operated out of the same location as SMFD. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". Hess continues running a dual operation. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. A Medical Examiner can often discover hidden evidence of injury to explain a sudden death, or can document natural diseases to show that no foul play was involved in the death. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. 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. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. 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 body was identified as that of 42 . According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. FBI scrutinizes Colorado funeral home with side business selling body I said I dont want to hear anymore.. "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. The back of the brochure featured the logo Donate Life, the national brand that promotes organ donation and is managed by Donate Life America, a nonprofit group. His head and his arms from his elbows to his fingers, his legs from his knees to his toes, had been removed from his body and they had been sold.. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. In reality, Burg added, they are just trying to get those bodies free and then they are going to chop them up themselves in parts and make money off the bodies.. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. or redistributed. The ex-employee said that she witnessed a collection of gold teeth that Hess mother allegedly extracted from the corpses fillings or crowns and that the familycashed in on the gold to pay for a trip to Disneyland in California. After Mabry threatened to sue Hess for losing the eye, he said Hess wrote him a check: $500, a refund of the money Dunlap had paid to donate plus $5. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. A A A Colorado-based funeral home director has been sentenced to 20 years in prison stemming from a litany of charges including fraud and illegally selling the body parts or bodies of approximately 500 individuals whose families did not consent to that practice. Fo The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. The indictment accuses Kent of allowing his wife to go out to death scenes as a deputy coroner, even though she took no oath and an appointment had not been filed with the county clerk, as required by law. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. The most expensive prices were for an upper torso that included a head and arms ($4,000) and the cost of an entire body was $5,000, according to the price list. Charles "Paul" Lynch Obituary (1953 - 2023) | Yuma, Colorado Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. POCATELLO, Idaho Police in Pocatello are investigating a local funeral home after they said a state health inspector contacted them about the business and a badly decomposed body was found. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. (REUTERS). The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess State Bans Coroner Shannon Kent From Private Business After Remains, Waste Found At Home-Based Colorado Funeral Home December 3, 2020 / 7:33 AM / CBS Colorado Colo. funeral home accused of doubling as body parts broker - KMGH They are struggling with claims she created a product with a power saw and angry that she ultimately profited from the sale of arms, heads legs, torsos even whole bodies. State suspends operations of Leadville, Gypsum funeral homes 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News According to High Country News, Hess was running the funeral home in conjunction with a non-profit called Donor Services Inc., through which she sold "donated" body parts to companies a practice referred to as body brokering. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. Montrose, Colorado: A former funeral home operator pleads guilty to 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. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. This content was originally published here. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. You are looking at how to make money.. . No one would pick up the phone. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. That individual, referred to in the order only as E.W., received no notice that the cremation would be done at the Gypsum funeral home, one of six locations Kent operates in Colorados high country. 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. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. In February 2018, Lina Cavanagh lost her baby at an advanced stage of pregnancy a loss that took its toll on her, both physically and emotionally. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following 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. Emmanuel Macron shared his vision of a renewed partnership with Africa in which it stands equal with France, as he concluded a tour where he has sought to dispel France's image as an arrogant former colonial power whilst bidding for future influence. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. Funeral-home owner gets 20 years in prison for cutting up dead bodies Megan Hess pleads guilty, faces 20 years in prison - The Colorado Sun There are no ethics there when you do that.. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. You are looking at how to make money.. Hess had created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! N.Y. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. No one would pick up the phone. A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred. And it is not against the law to operate a so-called body broker firm from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory. In Colorado and most other states, it also is legal for funeral homes to sell items recovered from dead bodies, such as gold dental work. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. Body of complaints piled up: State knew of funeral home concerns long Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. At the nursing home, Eberspacher said she reminded Koch that the glass eye was supposed to be returned and suggested it be popped out there. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. The Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center is under investigation by Jeffersonville Police Detective Division after 31 deceased individuals and the post-cremated remains of 16 individuals. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. Jeffersonville funeral home under investigation after police find 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. Sunset Mesa, like all other funeral homes in Colorado, is required by state law to have a death certificate filed with the vital records office before obtaining a disposition permit. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 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. . A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. Weeks passed before Hess told him that Donor Services couldnt retrieve the glass eye because the company couldnt locate the researcher who received Dunlaps head, Mabry said. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. After contacting Hess in December about the content of the brochure, Dolin said Hess told the organ transplant group that the brochure in question was old and has not been used for some time.. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Colorado Funeral Homes, funeral flowers & funeral planning After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following . He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. An indictment filed last week by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver alleges 43-year-old Megan Hess, of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services, harvested body parts from hundreds of dead people without any authorization from their families. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. E.W. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems, said Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Arizona, and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association. 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. Responding to the investigations and details reported out of Montrose, Colorado lawmakers could become the first in the country to pass a law making it illegal for funeral home or crematory owners to operate as a body broker. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. Read on to see why: At a glance, the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home appeared to be a business helping locals through the loss of their loved ones. (Google). Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images. On March 16, the director of the Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration sent Kent a letter of admonition after a state investigator found unembalmed, unrefrigerated bodily remains in his Gypsum funeral home more than 24 hours from the date of death. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Colorado funeral home known for history of misconduct | AP News Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. 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. Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation (If they've been left standing. 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. 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. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Colorado funeral home owner Megan Hess and her mother who sold body The lawsuit claims the three sold torsos for $1,000, a pelvis with upper legs for $1,200. The confrontation escalated when Shannon Kent allegedly called Lake County Sheriff Amy Reyes and threatened her with arrest for questioning his wifes decision not to use the body bag, prosecutors said. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. 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. Kent is already facing charges of perjury and official misconduct for sending wife Staci Kent, who is not authorized to act as a deputy coroner, to death scenes on at least three occasions, according to a September 2019 grand jury indictment. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. The fact that now the business is also making money from the sale of body parts if that is not being told to the family, it is unethical and probably illegal, if only as deception, said Robert Fells, general counsel of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, an industry trade group. Sunset Mesas operators, Megan Hess and Shirley Koch, were indicted by a federal grand jury in March for allegedly shipping body parts all over the world against the will of family members, who found out years later that the ashes in their homes were not those of their loved ones. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found Breathing at Funeral Home The incident happened at the Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, the. John Wayne Gacy's house has since been torn down and replaced with a new residence, built on the same land where Gacy reportedly buried many of his victims. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Indiana funeral home fell behind on processing bodies, which began to Extra charges are assessed if a body is embalmed or a funeral director is involved. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. Sunset Mesa Funeral Home Operators Arrested For Illegal Body Part Other charges against Hess will . There are no ethics there when you do that. Why their loved ones were stolen from them, and they were given back dry cement or sand and told it was loved ones ashes, said Teselle. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. FBI scrutinizes funeral home that also makes money selling - Reuters And as of. 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 and at least one instance in which a family received cremains for their stillborn child mixed with bits of adult body parts and metal fragments. 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.. Eaton Family Funeral Home Ordway, Colorado - imortuary.com 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. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. 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. The states Department of Regulatory Agencies said it has nine open complaints about Sunset Mesa higher than average for funeral homes in the state, said spokesman Lee Rasizer.