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. After receiving the cremains, E.W. 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. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. 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. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. 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. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. (If they've been left standing. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. 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. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. 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. 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. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. Fo 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. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com 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 Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. 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. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. No one would pick up the phone. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. 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. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. 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. 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. 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. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. Koch said she had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in, Escher said. Hess, along with her mother and father, are all named in a lawsuit, which accuses them of using a backroom to dismember cadavers with a power saw and stack body parts in coolers. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. 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. The Green Funeral. 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. 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 next year,. After an extensive investigation into this and dozens of similar cases, federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged the owners of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, on suspicion of illegally brokering the body parts of deceased individuals they were hired to cremate. 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. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, 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. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. . 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. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. (REUTERS). A Colorado funeral home operator who was accused of selling and stealing body parts pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the US justice department . Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. are acquisitions larger in general? Market data provided by Factset. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. In 2009, Hess also created a nonprofit called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, d/b/a Donor Services, a body broker service operated out of the same location as SMFD. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. That's part of my nightmare. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. 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Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Investigators discovered 31 dead bodies, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. 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. He had been dismembered. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. "This is the most emotionally draining. 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. 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. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. There are no ethics there when you do that. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. 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. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. (Google). Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. Colorado Ordway Funeral Homes Eaton Family Funeral Home Eaton Family Funeral Home in Ordway 202 E 3rd St Ordway, CO 81063 (719) 267-4221 Click to show location on map Zoom About Eaton Family Funeral Home We understand that losing a loved one can be a very stressful time. 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 . 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. The ex-employee said that she witnessed a collection of gold teeth that Hess mother allegedly extracted from the corpses fillings or crowns and that the familycashed in on the gold to pay for a trip to Disneyland in California. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. 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. 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. 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. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. A Medical Examiner can often discover hidden evidence of injury to explain a sudden death, or can document natural diseases to show that no foul play was involved in the death. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. 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. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. 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. Legal Statement. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. 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. 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. 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. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. 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. 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. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. 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. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. 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.. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . 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. Peck was given another six months of probation. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. 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. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. 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. 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. 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. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. All rights reserved. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. 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. 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. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. 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. And much like E.W. She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. ), 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. "Hess and Koch used their funeral home at times to essentially steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent and forged donor forms," prosecutor Tim Neff said in a court filing. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. . 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. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". 06, 2021. Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. The body was identified as that of 42 . His two shoulders went somewhere else. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. 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.. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities.
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