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I said I dont want to hear anymore.. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. GYPSUM The operating license for Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum has been summarily suspended by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies following an investigation that revealed disturbing conditions at an associated funeral home in Leadville. E.W. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. I just figured it was a legitimate business., When asked by Denver7 if she ever heard bodies being dismembered, Hampson said, you could hear the machine going. Asked if that machine was a saw, she said, Yes, you could hear that in the room (a back room at the funeral home). Bodies Found in Unlicensed Funeral Home: Police 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. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. 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. 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. 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 owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales case ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. Last August, police received a complaint that funds provided to. 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. 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. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. No one would pick up the phone. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. ThinkStock via Getty Images. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 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 . A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM 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. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. Funeral homes owned by Lake County coroner under investigation In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. This comes after a dozen . Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News Few state laws provide any oversight. 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. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. 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. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. 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. Thats when E.W. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. 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. 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. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. Legal Statement. 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. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . The emotional, daylong hearing brought to a close a five-year legal odyssey that began when the FBI raided the funeral home in February 2018, following a Reuters investigation that found Sunset Mesa to be unlike any other business in the country. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. 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. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. 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. 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. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. 06, 2021. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. And as of. Funeral home owners charged with desecrating human remains 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. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. Former Employee Accuses Dallas Funeral Home of Misconduct Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. In addition, a lawsuit has been filed by Shirley Hollenback and her daughter alleging that the remains she received purported to be the cremation ashes of her husband are somebody elses remains and not those of her husband. 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. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Colorado Funeral Homes. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director - Tennessee Lookout Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Its a profit business. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Arnold Roger Tesnow (Colorado Springs, Colorado), born in Worth, Illinois, who passed away on February 25, 2023 at the age of 78. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. 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. SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 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. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. The Green Funeral. On her cremation marketing website, a donor could simply select from a drop-down menu, fill out a few forms, click Add to Cart, and enter a credit card number. Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam 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. 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. 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. Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling 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. 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.. Colorado funeral home operators sentenced for selling body parts In Colorado and most other states, it also is legal for funeral homes to sell items recovered from dead bodies, such as gold dental work. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. 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. 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. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. 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. 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. 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. Extra charges are assessed if a body is embalmed or a funeral director is involved. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. That individual, referred to in the order only as E.W., received no notice that the cremation would be done at the Gypsum funeral home, one of six locations Kent operates in Colorados high country. Funeral-home owner gets 20 years in prison for cutting up dead bodies Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. 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.. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. Colorado Funeral Home Owners Charged With Brokering Body Parts Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. Funeral home owner who dismembered corpses, sold body parts sentenced She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. 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. 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. The next year,. Funeral home investigation: What to know about the discovery of 31 The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News 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. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. Montrose funeral home owner who allegedly sold - The Colorado Sun Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. And much like E.W. Eaton Family Funeral Home Ordway, Colorado - imortuary.com All rights reserved. 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. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. Legal Statement. Forty-fifth President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been exonerated of false claims from the radical left and the Biden administration that Trump was responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, due to a rollback. (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. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. 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. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. 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. 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. . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . You are looking at how to make money.. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Im not interested. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. 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. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. . Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. There are no ethics there when you do that. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 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. 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. Thats when E.W. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. . It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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.. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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.