colorado funeral home under investigation

The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. 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. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com And as of. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. The brochure, provided to Reuters by Hess during the 2016 interview, continued this way: Every year, organ, eye and tissue transplants provide hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from disease, injury, trauma or blindness. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. The. Hess and Koch also shipped bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonged to people who died from, infectious diseases including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, despite certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free, authorities said. 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 As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. And much like E.W. 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. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. 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. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. 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. Hess continues running a dual operation. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. 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. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 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. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. Reuters has reported in a report that you can read here that the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home of Montrose, Colorado, and its associated business, Donor Services, remains under investigation by the FBI. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. 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. NBC10 . All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. No one returned her voicemails. All rights reserved. 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. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . You are looking at how to make money.. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. 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 . According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. 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. 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. 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. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. 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. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. Peck was given another six months of probation. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. 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 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. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. 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. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, 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. The body was identified as that of 42 . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Thats when E.W. A funeral director who also works as a body broker could have a financial incentive to sell a body for its valuable parts rather than provide an inexpensive burial, for instance. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. 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. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. Hancock is one of more than five dozen family members currently suing the family that operated the now shut-down Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. 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. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. The operators of a Colorado funeral home suspected of running a side business selling body parts without consent have been indicted on fraud and illegally transporting diseased cadavers. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. 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. 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. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. No one would pick up the phone. 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. The federal case was triggered by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series about the sale of body parts in the United States, a virtually unregulated industry. . 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. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. 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. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. 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). Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily 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. Its a profit business. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. 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. 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.. 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. 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. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. But it provided an important public service, she said. 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. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. 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. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! 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. 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. There are no ethics there when you do that.. 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. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. A former Colorado funeral home operator has pleaded guilty to stealing and then selling hundreds of human bodies or body parts to people who were buying the remains for scientific, medical or . Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. As you likely know by now, Diamond of the famous 'Diamond and Silk' sister duo, has passed away at the young age of only 51. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) Hiring funeral directors: Do you look for IQ or EQ? It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello on Tuesday sentenced Hess, 46, to 20 years in prison the maximum allowable for her role in a nearly decade-long scheme to sell body parts without the. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Members of the FBI, along with Montrose law enforcement investigate the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building Tuesday morning, February 6, 2018.

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