Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. 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. 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. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Body brokering is not illegal in Colorado; however, a 2020 Denver7 report noted that Hess, along with her mother, were donating bodies without the consent of the deceased's family. Authorities are now investigating. 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. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Reuters began examining the Hess companies more than a year ago as part of the news agencys exploration of the human body trade, a virtually unregulated industry that largely operates in the shadows. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. Few state laws provide any oversight. 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. 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. It was kind of creepy.. The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. . 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. Jan 3 (Reuters) - A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission. On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. . And much like E.W. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh 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. 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. All rights reserved. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. or redistributed. 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. 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. When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. 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. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. And much like E.W. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . This content was originally published here. a contrarian view? Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. Before he died in 2016, the 78-year-old retired contractor saved $200 on cremation by agreeing to pledge parts of his body to Donor Services. The 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. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? 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. 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.. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. (REUTERS). 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 price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. 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. 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. 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. I go to sleep with the visions of him being dismembered with a power saw, said Ruthie Pettyjohn, whose sons body parts were allegedly sold. 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. First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. 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. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. Fo Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. 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 months later, after hearing nothing from Hess, Schum went to Sunset Mesa to retrieve her friend's ashes. 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 After receiving the cremains, E.W. 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. E.W. . I said I dont want to hear anymore.. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. (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. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. 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. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. 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, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. 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. No one would pick up the phone. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. 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. 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. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. DENVER, Colorado - A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 . John Wayne Gacy House: Now. 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. 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. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. 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. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. She did. [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true]. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. 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. Legal Statement. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. 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.. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. But selling body parts such as heads, arms and spines which is what Hess did for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. No one returned her voicemails. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? 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. Thank you, she said before ending the call. ), 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. 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 . Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. Market data provided by Factset. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. 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. His two shoulders went somewhere else. They were affiliated with her funeral business. On Monday, the family of Ramon Lara Castillo a 63-year-old Nashville house painter who succumbed to liver cancer in October 2020 filed a federal lawsuit against former funeral director Reid Van Ness and the operators of a funeral home in Lewisburg, Tenn. Roommates and friends of Castillo paid Van Ness $1,800 to ship the body home to his . "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. All rights reserved. (Google). 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. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . 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). My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. 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.