Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. 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 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. After receiving the cremains, E.W. The Green Funeral. 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 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. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. 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. The most expensive prices were for an upper torso that included a head and arms ($4,000) and the cost of an entire body was $5,000, according to the price list. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. In Colorado and most other states, it also is legal for funeral homes to sell items recovered from dead bodies, such as gold dental work. 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 . Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. 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. The next year,. The body was identified as that of 42 . 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. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. As a matter of fact, the FBI has set up a hot line and e-mail address for potential victims of the businesses to contact with information. They desecrated his little body, she said. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. In mid-March, Kent received a letter of admonition" from the Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration after unembalmed, unrefrigerated remains were found in the Gypsum funeral home over 24 hours after the person had died. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. a contrarian view? 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. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. 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. The. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems,Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Ariz., and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association, said. 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. You are looking at how to make money.. 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. 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. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. . 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. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Thats when E.W. 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. Thank you, she said before ending the call. 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. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. 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. 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. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. (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. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . 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. 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 . There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. They were affiliated with her funeral business. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. 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. This content was originally published here. No one would pick up the phone. 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. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. 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 . Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. Investigators discovered 31 dead bodies, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. 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. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. What You Need To Know. Thank you for thinking of me.. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. An indictment filed last week by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver alleges 43-year-old Megan Hess, of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services, harvested body parts from hundreds of dead people without any authorization from their families. "This is the most emotionally draining. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or 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. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! 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 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 . 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. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. (Google). Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. 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 eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. Could, Lake County coroner turns in resignation letter, State suspends operations of Leadville, Gypsum funeral homes, 3 BULLETS TO THE BACK: The striking silence around a police, Last Season Hunters Harvested the Most Bucks in 21 Years | Outdoor Life, Republicans are barring medical boards from punishing doctors who prescribe ivermectin: report | Salon.com, Mead High School student gets musical Make-A-Wish surprise, Bruce Cassidy Defends Tuukka Rask After Tough Showing Vs. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. 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. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. 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. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. 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. Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. 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 investigation of Kents funeral homes began in February after the sheriffs office received a complaint by a client regarding the handling of human remains. This comes after a dozen . Few state laws provide any oversight. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. 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. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. 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. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. 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. 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. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. 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. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. Its sickening, said Hanson. 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 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. 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. 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. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hess's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Hess continues running a dual operation. It described a body broker as a company that acquires dead bodies, dissects them and sells the parts for profit to medical researchers, training organizations and other buyers.. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Hiring funeral directors: Do you look for IQ or EQ? Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. . And much like E.W. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Members of the FBI, along with Montrose law enforcement investigate the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building Tuesday morning, February 6, 2018. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. 06, 2021. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. 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. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. 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. 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. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. 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. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. According to High Country News, Hess was running the funeral home in conjunction with a non-profit called Donor Services Inc., through which she sold "donated" body parts to companies a practice referred to as body brokering.
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