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. 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. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. 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. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. They were affiliated with her funeral business. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. Investigators discovered 31 dead bodies, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition. His head and his arms from his elbows to his fingers, his legs from his knees to his toes, had been removed from his body and they had been sold.. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. 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. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. Im not interested. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. The FBI hired a lab to test the cremains given to the families, and they have determined the boxes of ash contain cement, sand and other non-human particles. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Other staff members also said that it was never disclosed to donor families that the corpses would be sold for profit a potentially illegal practice. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. or redistributed. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. You are looking at how to make money.. 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. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. . Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. 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.. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. 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. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. 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. The Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center is under investigation by Jeffersonville Police Detective Division after 31 deceased individuals and the post-cremated remains of 16 individuals. Kent is already facing charges of perjury and official misconduct for sending wife Staci Kent, who is not authorized to act as a deputy coroner, to death scenes on at least three occasions, according to a September 2019 grand jury indictment. 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 . 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. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. This content was originally published here. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. 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. . Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. What You Need To Know. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . 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[the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. To betray that help, in a way that the businesses here are alleged to have done, brings nothing but a lack of credibility to all funeral service professionals. "This is the most emotionally draining. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. . You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. Thats when E.W. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. And it is not against the law to operate a so-called body broker firm from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. 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. The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. The Green Funeral. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. After receiving the cremains, E.W. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. 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. 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. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. 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. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. a contrarian view? Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. This comes after a dozen . 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. 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 . The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. 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. 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. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. 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. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. 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. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 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. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. And much like E.W. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. The body was identified as that of 42 . 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. Peck was given another six months of probation. While operating Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, Hess and Koch sold remains of the deceased for body broker services without family consent and gave families ashes that were. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. On Oct. 2, the Lake and Eagle county sheriffs departments executed a search warrant at the Bailey-Kent Funeral Home in Leadville, where deputies encountered a strong odor of decomposition, according to an Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by the states Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration, before finding: In addition to the Leadville funeral home, the state issued suspension orders for the Kent Funeral Home Gypsum. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true]. They desecrated his little body, she said. 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. 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. 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. 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. Legal Statement. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess 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. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. 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. She said that one month she got about $40,000 from selling donated bodies. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. And much like E.W. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. An Upstate New York funeral home proprietor is facing imminent criminal charges for allegedly keeping dead human bodies in "advanced states of decomposition" in his business and its detached garage, local officials announced Friday. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. 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. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found Breathing at Funeral Home The incident happened at the Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, the. 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. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. 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. "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. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. 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. 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 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. Thats when E.W. Hess continues running a dual operation. 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 Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. No one would pick up the phone. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . 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. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 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. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. 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. (William Woody, Special to the Colorado Sun), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, (720) 263-2338 Call, text, Signal or WhatsApp, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Along with it would be a note reading: Heres looking at you. The rest of his ashes would be buried with Dunlaps mother in Denver. 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. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. And as of. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. 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. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. No one would pick up the phone. 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. When Mabry and Eberspacher went to Sunset Mesa the morning after Dunlap died, Hess and Koch said they could not locate the eye, Eberspacher said. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. 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. 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.
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