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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. On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. 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.. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. 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. ThinkStock via Getty Images. Body of complaints piled up: State knew of funeral home concerns long Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. Colorado woman sentenced to 20 years for stealing, selling body parts She did. 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. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! 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 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. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. State suspends operations of Leadville, Gypsum funeral homes or redistributed. 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 . Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. 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. FBI Raids Montrose Funeral Home Accused Of Donating - CBS News 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 Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. On March 17, the unsealed indictment revealed that this donor services business would harvest the human remains and then sell them, illegally and without the families' knowledge. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. 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 legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. 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. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. Funeral Home Owner Brian Barnett Faces Charges in N.Y. Probe - Law & Crime The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. 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. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. 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. 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.. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. 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. 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). Trial scheduled for ex-Lake County coroner, wife arrested after - KKTV The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. (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. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, 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. Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation 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. Im not interested. "This is the most emotionally draining. 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. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. N.Y. 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. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. Colorado regulators can now inspect funeral homes and crematories Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway's Cause of Death Revealed 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. Two funeral homes owned by Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent are under investigation after law enforcement earlier this month found an unrefrigerated body, an abandoned stillborn infant, bags of unl Montrose, Colorado: A former funeral home operator pleads guilty to And much like E.W. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Thank you, she said before ending the call. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. 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. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. 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. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales case 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. Do You Remember the Dark History of This Colorado Funeral Home? She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. 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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. The federal case was triggered by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series about the sale of body parts in the United States, a virtually unregulated industry. Trump Vindicated, Biden Proven A Liar As NYT Admits Trump Rollback Had 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 FBI started looking into Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services a few months after it was discovered that both businesses were being operated out of the same building and by the same owner, according to thereport. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. 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. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Indiana funeral home fell behind on processing bodies, which began to 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. 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. ), 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. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborns cremains mixed with portions of adult remains as well as metal fragments. E.W. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. . Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. . 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. Police investigating Pocatello funeral home - KTVB 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. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. 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. 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. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. They desecrated his little body, she said. Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily I'll never be OK.". The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. 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. Funeral home owners charged with desecrating human remains With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Arnold Roger Tesnow (Colorado Springs, Colorado), born in Worth, Illinois, who passed away on February 25, 2023 at the age of 78. Funeral homes owned by Lake County coroner under investigation Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera.