Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. 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. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. 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. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. That's part of my nightmare. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. 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. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. 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. Its for profit and people dont realize there is a huge demand for cadavers and body parts., That demand comes from all over the world including medical schools, law enforcement agencies, the military and a variety of other industries looking to legitimately purchase bodies and body parts for credible research. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. The probe into the coroners funeral homes started back in February, after a client complained to the Lake County Sheriffs Office about the handling of human remains. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Lake County coroner Shannon Kent owns both the Bailey-Kent Funeral Home in Leadville about 100 miles southeast of Denver and the Kent Funeral Home Gypsum about 133 miles west of the Mile High City, The Denver Post reported Friday. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. Investigators discovered 31 dead bodies, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition. Fo did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. 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.. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. Teselle said, Whats shocking to me is that theres not an outcry for there to be more legislation, theres not an outcry for the government to regulate and license these people.. GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO: On allegations of fraud and illegally selling body parts, a former owner of a funeral home in Colorado was given a 20-year term in federal prison. When Mabry and Eberspacher went to Sunset Mesa the morning after Dunlap died, Hess and Koch said they could not locate the eye, Eberspacher said. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Few state laws provide any oversight. 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. A pelvis with upper legs went for $1,200, heads for $500, a knee for $250, and a foot for $125, according to a 2013 Donor Services price list reviewed by Reuters. 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. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. 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. (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. A Colorado funeral home operator who was accused of selling and stealing body parts pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the US justice department . 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. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. 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. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. (Google). Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. 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. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. 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. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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. Funeral home remains under federal investigation A woman is among more than five dozen family members currently suing the family that operated the now shut-down Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, after finding out her husband's body parts had been sold without her consent. "This is the most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced on the bench," U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello said during Tuesday's sentencing hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. 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. 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. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. She said that one month she got about $40,000 from selling donated bodies. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . 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. After a reporter asked questions about the websiteand her background, Hess removed the Add to Cart donation pages from her cremation website and cut the mention of the mortuary science degree from her online biography. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) 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. A price list uncovered during an ongoing lawsuit against an Arizona body broker provides insight into the value of body parts and the profits that can be produced. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. NBC10 . The Green Funeral. 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. 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. A former Colorado funeral home operator has pleaded guilty to stealing and then selling hundreds of human bodies or body parts to people who were buying the remains for scientific, medical or . It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. 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. (REUTERS). U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello on Tuesday sentenced Hess, 46, to 20 years in prison the maximum allowable for her role in a nearly decade-long scheme to sell body parts without the. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. . You are looking at how to make money.. All rights reserved. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. A former Colorado funeral home owner has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on charges of fraud and selling body parts without permission. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. 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. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. 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. 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. 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. The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. As a result, Peck and his funeral home were required to pay a $2,500 fine and $5,000 in investigative costs and attorney fees. 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. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. 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. As you likely know by now, Diamond of the famous 'Diamond and Silk' sister duo, has passed away at the young age of only 51. "Hess and Koch's conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.". I just figured it was a legitimate business., When asked by Denver7 if she ever heard bodies being dismembered, Hampson said, you could hear the machine going. Asked if that machine was a saw, she said, Yes, you could hear that in the room (a back room at the funeral home). Its a profit business. 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. 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. On her cremation marketing website, a donor could simply select from a drop-down menu, fill out a few forms, click Add to Cart, and enter a credit card number. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. 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. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. 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. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Jan 3 (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. Theyre united by the pain of believing they purchased cremation services for their loved ones, knowing they never agreed to let Hess dismember the bodies. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. 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. 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. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . 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. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. 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. 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. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. 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. Other staff members also said that it was never disclosed to donor families that the corpses would be sold for profit a potentially illegal practice. 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. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. The body was identified as that of 42 . some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. In February of 2018, Colorado regulators shut down the funeral home at the same time the FBI was investigating claims families did not receive the real cremains of their loved ones. This content was originally published here. 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. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. 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. Jan 3 (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 without permission.