The. It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. Fells called running such a multifaceted operation a new frontier., Through the attorney, Hess declined to comment for this story and didnt address questions about the FBI probe, her business practices, and the allegations by former employees. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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.. 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. 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. 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. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. 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. 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. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. Its sickening, said Hanson. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. ), Windsors Newest Hot Spot is Open and Smells of Glorious Bacon [Photos], The Cheapest Home in Weld County is Selling for Less Than $90K, Local Fort Collins Photographer Wins 3rd Grammy in the Visual Arts, WATCH: This Deleted Scene From The Office Totally Calls Out Colorado, The 2023 Cheyenne Frontier Days Concert Lineup Has Been Announced, This Weeks Larimer Countys Most Wanted: Dallas Rusk, 3 Northern Colorado Districts in Top 10 for Slow Internet Access, New Life Planned for this Beloved Greeley Building, the dark history behind the town's funeral home, READ: This 1993 Steamboat Springs Murder Became One of the Nation's Most Chilling Cases. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. 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 . 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. 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. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. 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. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Thats when E.W. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. 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. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. 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. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 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. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. 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. 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. 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. She said that one month she got about $40,000 from selling donated bodies. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. 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. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. NBC10 . 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. 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. 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They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. Fo 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. Few state laws provide any oversight. 06, 2021. 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. 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. 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. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. 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. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. Market data provided by Factset. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. "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. 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. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. 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. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. . There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. 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. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . 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. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. 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. 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. E.W. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. No one returned her voicemails. 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. Im not interested. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. He had been dismembered. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. In at least dozens of instances, Hess and Koch did not follow family wishes, and neither discussed nor obtained authorization for Donor Services to transfer decedents' bodies or . 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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 former Colorado funeral home owner has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on charges of fraud and selling body parts without permission. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. Its a profit business. You are looking at how to make money.. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. 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. 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. It was kind of creepy.. . 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. 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. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Some of those family members are now questioning if the services were held free of charge while Donor Services sent some of the remains (body parts) to clients for payments without the knowledge and consent of family members. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. All rights reserved. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. At her funeral home, Hess charged families up to $1,000 for cremations that never occurred, prosecutors said, and she offered others free cremations in exchange for a body donation. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. The FBI hired a lab to test the cremains given to the families, and they have determined the boxes of ash contain cement, sand and other non-human particles. 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). Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 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. No one returned her voicemails. MONTROSE, Colorado The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing former employees of a funeral home whose owner runs a side business on the same premises selling human body parts. 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. This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. 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. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. 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. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. An Upstate New York funeral home proprietor is facing imminent criminal charges for allegedly keeping dead human bodies in "advanced states of decomposition" in his business and its detached garage, local officials announced Friday. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. . As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Legal Statement. I'll never be OK.". On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . On Monday, the family of Ramon Lara Castillo a 63-year-old Nashville house painter who succumbed to liver cancer in October 2020 filed a federal lawsuit against former funeral director Reid Van Ness and the operators of a funeral home in Lewisburg, Tenn. Roommates and friends of Castillo paid Van Ness $1,800 to ship the body home to his . 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. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. 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. 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. 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 . But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. To betray that help, in a way that the businesses here are alleged to have done, brings nothing but a lack of credibility to all funeral service professionals. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. Colorado Funeral Homes. 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. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. 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. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. The friend would then place the glass eye in an urn containing half of Dunlaps ashes and bury the urn atop the grave of Dunlaps father in Telluride, Colorado. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. And much like E.W. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. They desecrated his little body, she said. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. The Green Funeral. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said.
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