colorado funeral home under investigation

Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. 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. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Few state laws provide any oversight. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. 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. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. They desecrated his little body, she said. (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. 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. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. . Colorado Funeral Homes. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. All rights reserved. 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. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. 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. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Think about it, the FBI came in and raided them, and they raided them because they knew this body broker this was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, said Berg. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. 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. 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 . That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. The back of the brochure featured the logo Donate Life, the national brand that promotes organ donation and is managed by Donate Life America, a nonprofit group. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. 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.. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. Legal Statement. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. That's part of my nightmare. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. 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. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. 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. 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. 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. 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. 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. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. The body was identified as that of 42 . 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. 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. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. 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. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. 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.. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. 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. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. All rights reserved. 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. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. ThinkStock via Getty Images. 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. Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Two months later, after hearing nothing from Hess, Schum went to Sunset Mesa to retrieve her friend's ashes. 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. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. At the nursing home, Eberspacher said she reminded Koch that the glass eye was supposed to be returned and suggested it be popped out there. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. 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. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jeffersonville funeral home is under investigation after the owner allegedly got behind on processing bodies, which began stacking up for an unknown period of. Chantal Reh. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. 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. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Read on to see why: At a glance, the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home appeared to be a business helping locals through the loss of their loved ones. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. Investigators discovered 31 dead bodies, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition. 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. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. 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. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. E.W. 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 . On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . 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. 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. 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. No one would pick up the phone. 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. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. 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. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . Emmanuel Macron shared his vision of a renewed partnership with Africa in which it stands equal with France, as he concluded a tour where he has sought to dispel France's image as an arrogant former colonial power whilst bidding for future influence. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. Last August, police received a complaint that funds provided to. 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. On March 17, the unsealed indictment revealed that this donor services business would harvest the human remains and then sell them, illegally and without the families' knowledge. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. Authorities are now investigating. Ducks, Used body bags, medical gloves and other surgical equipment with dried bodily fluid on them piled on the floor, Bodily fluids leaking out of a body bag containing an individual who had not been refrigerated, A container of animal remains leaking fluids, Several bodies in refrigeration wrapped in sheets or blankets without identifying tags or paperwork, An unmarked casket containing a stillborn infant that was abandoned, the suspension order states, Paperwork scattered several feet deep on the floor. 06, 2021. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. 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. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. Both Reh and Cavanagh said they want to get the ashes analyzed at the University of Colorado to see if they actually belong to their babies. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. During her speech at Diamond's funeral, her partner in crime, Silk, implied that there was foul play involved in her death and urged for an investigation. The lawsuit claims the three sold torsos for $1,000, a pelvis with upper legs for $1,200. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. 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. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. Im not interested. or redistributed. This content was originally published here. In reality, Burg added, they are just trying to get those bodies free and then they are going to chop them up themselves in parts and make money off the bodies.. You are looking at how to make money.. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. And much like E.W. And as of. The funeral home's owners, Megan Hess, 43, and her mother . DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 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. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. 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. 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. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. The. (Google). Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. are acquisitions larger in general? 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. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. The Green Funeral. He had been dismembered. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. 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. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle.

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