colorado funeral home under investigation

Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. 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. . Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. Teselle said, Whats shocking to me is that theres not an outcry for there to be more legislation, theres not an outcry for the government to regulate and license these people.. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. FBI Raids Montrose Funeral Home Accused Of Donating - CBS News 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. They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. They desecrated his little body, she said. 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 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 . But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. You are looking at how to make money.. 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. Indiana funeral home fell behind on processing bodies, which began to 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. FBI scrutinizes Colorado funeral home with side business selling body 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. 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. 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. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com 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 gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . 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. 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. 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. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Hess continues running a dual operation. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. The next year,. Coroner and Wife Accused of Running Funeral Home From Hell 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. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hess's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. There are people and businesses who spend millions and millions of dollars," Teselle added, "trafficking in these body parts as if they were nothing more than cans of soup or loaves of bread., I was pretty shocked, said Jacque Hampson, a former employee of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. 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. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. But it provided an important public service, she said. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. Former workers told Reuters that Hess and Koch conducted unauthorized dismemberments of bodies, and a few weeks after a 2018 story was published, the FBI raided the business. 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. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. A pelvis with upper legs went for $1,200, heads for $500, a knee for $250, and a foot for $125, according to a 2013 Donor Services price list reviewed by Reuters. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved There are many events that have unfolded over the past couple weeks involving Downard Funeral Home, some including Idaho State University (ISU). 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 . 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. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. 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. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. . Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Colorado Funeral Home Caught Selling Bodies Intended For Cremation Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. They were affiliated with her funeral business. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. 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. 06, 2021. 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 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Owner of funeral home under investigation had history of violations Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. Colorado funeral home owner Megan Hess and her mother who sold body John Wayne Gacy House: Now. Amid FBI investigation, state closes case on Montrose funeral home She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. This comes after a dozen . Hess made donating a body online easy. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body No one would pick up the phone. 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). 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 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. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. 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. Source: Bodies stacked up at Jeffersonville funeral home after - WDRB Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway's Cause of Death Revealed Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following parents are now under investigation by the FBI. . 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. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. Colo. funeral home accused of doubling as body parts broker - KMGH FBI probe into Colorado funeral home that doubled as body - Fox News The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Colorado Funeral Homes. The funeral home's owners, Megan Hess, 43, and her mother . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Market data provided by Factset. Jeffersonville funeral home under investigation after police find 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. Forty-fifth President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been exonerated of false claims from the radical left and the Biden administration that Trump was responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, due to a rollback. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. . N.Y. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. No one returned her voicemails. 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. . This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. 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. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. 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. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. Weeks passed before Hess told him that Donor Services couldnt retrieve the glass eye because the company couldnt locate the researcher who received Dunlaps head, Mabry said. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Trial scheduled for ex-Lake County coroner, wife arrested after - KKTV First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. Thank you for thinking of me.. Thats when E.W. The lawsuit claims the three sold torsos for $1,000, a pelvis with upper legs for $1,200. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. 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. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. 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. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. Legal Statement. 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. Eaton Family Funeral Home Ordway, Colorado - imortuary.com The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. 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. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. 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 state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. 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. 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. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH 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 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. 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. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. 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. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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 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. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . 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. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. E.W. 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. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. 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 Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. I just had the impression that something wasnt right all along. He said neither Hess nor Koch told him that his friends body parts would be sold. are acquisitions larger in general? 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. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. There are no ethics there when you do that.. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. Funeral Home Operator Jailed After Selling Body Parts of 500-Plus The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. Charles "Paul" Lynch Obituary (1953 - 2023) | Yuma, Colorado Funeral Home Owner Brian Barnett Faces Charges in N.Y. Probe - Law & Crime

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