Colorado funeral home operators sentenced for selling body parts Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Since that time, according to the article, Reuters has not been able to find another business in the United States that operates a funeral home, crematory, and body broker business in the same location and operated by the same owner. The Green Funeral. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. In 2018, Schum got a call from FBI Special Agent John Busch, who told her that Sunset Mesa had sold not just her friend's body, but many others. 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. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator who was accused of selling and stealing body parts pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the US justice department . All rights reserved. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. 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. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. No one would pick up the phone. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. And much like E.W. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. E.W. 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. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. 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. 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. 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. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. The next year,. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. 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 . First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. 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. 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. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. The indictment accuses Kent of allowing his wife to go out to death scenes as a deputy coroner, even though she took no oath and an appointment had not been filed with the county clerk, as required by law. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. 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. . The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. 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. Funeral home owner who dismembered corpses, sold body parts sentenced 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 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. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. And as of. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO: On allegations of fraud and illegally selling body parts, a former owner of a funeral home in Colorado was given a 20-year term in federal prison. State Bans Coroner Shannon Kent From Private Business After Remains Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. 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). Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. E.W. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. 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.. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. 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, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. 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 startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. 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 Funeral Homes, funeral flowers & funeral planning Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . I'll never be OK.". The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . The body was identified as that of 42 . 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. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. FBI Raids Montrose Funeral Home Accused Of Donating - CBS News Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. 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. 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 Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. In one instance, on March 10, 2019, Staci Kent was significantly delayed to the scene because the van she was using to pick up the body had a dead battery, bald tires and was buried in snow, prosecutors alleged. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. That's part of my nightmare. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Leaking body bags, unrefrigerated remains: Colorado funeral homes under No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. florida medical examiner case search - aboutray16-eiga.com They desecrated his little body, she said. 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. Megan Hess pleads guilty, faces 20 years in prison - The Colorado Sun 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. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales case Reuters could not independently verify this figure. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. 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. 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. 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. There are no ethics there when you do that. Hess continues running a dual operation. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. State investigates 'Buried by the Bernards' funeral home - WREG.com 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. Funeral Home Operator Jailed After Selling Body Parts of 500-Plus The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . 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. Colorado regulators can now inspect funeral homes and crematories Montrose funeral home owner who allegedly sold - The Colorado Sun 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. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved There are many events that have unfolded over the past couple weeks involving Downard Funeral Home, some including Idaho State University (ISU). Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . 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. She said that one month she got about $40,000 from selling donated bodies. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh 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. Kent has not yet been arrested for the most recent incidents, which at the Leadville funeral home included authorities' discovery of an abandoned stillborn, according to the Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by Colorados Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration. Thats when E.W. POCATELLO, Idaho Police in Pocatello are investigating a local funeral home after they said a state health inspector contacted them about the business and a badly decomposed body was found. . According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. Theyre united by the pain of believing they purchased cremation services for their loved ones, knowing they never agreed to let Hess dismember the bodies. Its a profit business. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. 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. 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 federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. She mentioned on several occasions about how much money she would be getting per month, which blew my mind, said Jennifer Henderson, a former floral designer for Sunset Mesa. Thats when E.W. 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. Funeral homes owned by Lake County coroner under investigation 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. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. But it provided an important public service, she said. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. . Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) The indictment accuses Kent of allowing his wife to go out to death scenes as a deputy coroner, even though she took no oath and an appointment had not been filed with the county clerk, as required by law. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. While Sunset Mesa legally is permitted to own and operate both businesses, Reuters found that there was no other active instance where a funeral home, crematory and body broker had the same owner and were in the same facility. TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. 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 . You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 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. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. 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. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. 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. 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 . Funeral home remains under federal investigation 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. Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling