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According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. 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. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Hess committed crimes, prosecutors said, when she defrauded relatives of the deceased by lying about cremations and by dissecting bodies and selling them without permission. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body 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. E.W. Former Employee Accuses Dallas Funeral Home of Misconduct The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. 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. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. 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. 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. Sunset Mesa, like all other funeral homes in Colorado, is required by state law to have a death certificate filed with the vital records office before obtaining a disposition permit. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. 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. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. Hess made donating a body online easy. 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 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 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. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. Thank you, she said before ending the call. State investigates 'Buried by the Bernards' funeral home - WREG.com The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. Eaton Family Funeral Home Ordway, Colorado - imortuary.com Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. 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 article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Colo. funeral home accused of doubling as body parts broker - KMGH This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jeffersonville funeral home is under investigation after the owner allegedly got behind on processing bodies, which began stacking up for an unknown period of. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. 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 can't be fixed, said Hancock. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. 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. Few state laws provide any oversight. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. Since that time, according to the article, Reuters has not been able to find another business in the United States that operates a funeral home, crematory, and body broker business in the same location and operated by the same owner. 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). Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. Colorado funeral home owner accused of stealing body parts pleads 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 couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. The report also noted that a former employee at Sunset Mesa was troubled by Hess mother, who was responsible for embalming and dismembering the dead bodies. 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. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? 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. . I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. 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. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. 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. "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. 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. Kent has not been arrested in this latest incident and no charges have been filed, though the two funeral homes business licenses have been suspended by the state. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. Arnold Roger Tesnow Obituary (1944 - 2023) | Colorado Springs, Colorado Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. 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. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. 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. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . 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. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. Megan Hess pleads guilty, faces 20 years in prison - The Colorado Sun
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