Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. 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. Hiring funeral directors: Do you look for IQ or EQ? Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images. The reality of body brokers profiting from the sale of body parts has made national and international headlines following government raids in Arizona and Colorado in recent years. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. No one returned her voicemails. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . In mid-November, she wrote an email to a surgical training company saying that she could supply a human torso, according to messages reviewed by Reuters. Bankman-Fried can have flip phone, limited internet while on bail, US proposes, Biden assembles team of allies to boost re-election campaign, Reporting by John Shiffman; Editing by Paul Simao and Richard Chang, Michigan judge dismisses school staff as defendants in lawsuits over mass shooting, American Airlines, flight attendants union seek mediation in contract negotiations, Macron ends Africa tour with wish for fair reset of ties, Turkey's Erdogan dismisses opposition split and says his ruling alliance will stay on same path, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party calls for opposition unity after split, In Turkey's quake-devasted city of Antakya, an antiques seller is determined to stay put, Eni agrees deal with UAE's ADNOC as Italy rebuilds relationship, Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. . Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. 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. NBC10 . Six people were killed, including federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll; Gabe Zimmerman, one of Giffords's staffers; and a 9-year-old girl . A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. E.W. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 4th 2023 at 10:30 AM at the First Church of the Nazarene (505 E Beatty Ave, Yuma, CO 80759). pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. 06, 2021. 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. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. And as of. 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. 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 Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. 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. 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. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. His two shoulders went somewhere else. (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. This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. I go to sleep with the visions of him being dismembered with a power saw, said Ruthie Pettyjohn, whose sons body parts were allegedly sold. Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. DENVER, Colorado - 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 . According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. 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. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. 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. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. Two months later, after hearing nothing from Hess, Schum went to Sunset Mesa to retrieve her friend's ashes. After losing his ability to conduct cremation or funeral home services in December, Kent's Silverthorne funeral parlor sat empty until this month when the new tenant, Colorado Funeral Homes . 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. 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. Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. Details of Shannon Kents operations come on the heels of a Montrose funeral home that made international headlines in 2018 after an FBI raid and subsequent two-year investigation. Hess continues running a dual operation. ThinkStock via Getty Images. They desecrated his little body, she said. This content was originally published here. 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. The operators of a Colorado funeral home suspected of running a side business selling body parts without consent have been indicted on fraud and illegally transporting diseased cadavers. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. . You are looking at how to make money.. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true]. 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. 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. . 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. Thats when E.W. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. Though Koch dissected bodies in the back room at Sunset Mesa, they claimed that the body had to be sent out for harvesting, Eberspacher said. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. 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. 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. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. The brochure, provided to Reuters by Hess during the 2016 interview, continued this way: Every year, organ, eye and tissue transplants provide hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from disease, injury, trauma or blindness. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. The scope of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home and Donor Services remains unclear at this time while investigators are trying to get a handle on that issue. . In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. 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. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. 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. found out the cremains contained ashes from an infant, but also long bone fragments of an older/larger adult individual and metal, according to the suspension order. Hess made donating a body online easy. 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. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. 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. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July 2022 after a 2018 investigation that exposed her for selling parts of dead bodies that were brought to the funeral home for cremation. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. 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. A Colorado funeral home is under federal investigation over accusations it doubled as a body broker firm, buying and selling human body parts, a Reuters special report revealed Tuesday. 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. Last August, police received a complaint that funds provided to. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. 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. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . 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. 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 investigation of Kents funeral homes began in February after the sheriffs office received a complaint by a client regarding the handling of human remains. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. A Colorado funeral home is under federal investigation over accusations it doubledas a body broker firm, buying and selling human body parts, aReuters special report revealedTuesday. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. While operating Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, Hess and Koch sold remains of the deceased for body broker services without family consent and gave families ashes that were. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. Its sickening, said Hanson. The next year,. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . 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. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. The gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Kent has not yet been arrested for the most recent incidents, which at the Leadville funeral home included authorities' discovery of an abandoned stillborn, according to the Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by Colorados Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. 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. No one would pick up the phone. 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. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. A state investigation by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance now focuses on a Memphis funeral home that's also the focus of a Netflix reality show. 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. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Hess' lawyer said she has been unfairly vilified as a "witch," a "monster" and a "ghoul," when instead she is a "broken human being" whose conduct can be attributed to a traumatic brain injury at age 18. No one would pick up the phone. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. 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. (REUTERS). (Google). As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. "No, I did not," Hancock responded. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. And much like E.W. 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. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Details of Shannon Kents operations come on the heels of a Montrose funeral home that made international headlines in 2018 after an FBI raid and subsequent two-year investigation. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. 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.. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. 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. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Get to know all 17 Denver mayor candidates , Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following discovery of unrefrigerated body, unlabeled cremains, Owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors indicted for illegally selling human body parts, Former Montrose funeral home director accused of selling body parts loses state insurance license, This really has shattered me: Betrayal, anger, grief haunt victims of Colorado funeral home that sold loved ones body parts without permission, Denver weather: Strong winds and low humidity will elevate fire concerns Sunday, Vehicle owners can register for car theft deterrent program DenverTrack, Data breach of DPS computer servers affects all district employees, officials say, Colorado psychologists gain authority to prescribe mental health medication, Colorado property owners to face astronomical tax increases next year, After School Satan Club launching first Colorado chapter, but organizer promises "we are not devil worshippers", PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado landlords say eviction-protection proposal could make dropping problem renters too hard, No more greasy pizza boxes, paper towels or takeout containers in Front Range compost bins come April 1, 5 can't-miss menus for Denver Restaurant Week, After teen's death, Denver East High students walk out to advocate for gun legislation, Boulder house where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Metro Denver housing market crosses firmly into negative territory in February, Kiszla: With Brendan Rodgers down and out, Kris Bryant could become $182 million face of worst team in Rockies history, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information, 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. Few state laws provide any oversight. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado.

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