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. 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. 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. There are people and businesses who spend millions and millions of dollars," Teselle added, "trafficking in these body parts as if they were nothing more than cans of soup or loaves of bread., I was pretty shocked, said Jacque Hampson, a former employee of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. 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. (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. Market data provided by Factset. She did. When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. The fact that now the business is also making money from the sale of body parts if that is not being told to the family, it is unethical and probably illegal, if only as deception, said Robert Fells, general counsel of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, an industry trade group. . They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. Fo Peck was given another six months of probation. "This is the most emotionally draining. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. This content was originally published here. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. 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. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. They desecrated his little body, she said. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Get to know all 17 Denver mayor candidates , Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following discovery of unrefrigerated body, unlabeled cremains, Owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors indicted for illegally selling human body parts, Former Montrose funeral home director accused of selling body parts loses state insurance license, This really has shattered me: Betrayal, anger, grief haunt victims of Colorado funeral home that sold loved ones body parts without permission, Denver weather: Strong winds and low humidity will elevate fire concerns Sunday, Vehicle owners can register for car theft deterrent program DenverTrack, Data breach of DPS computer servers affects all district employees, officials say, Colorado psychologists gain authority to prescribe mental health medication, Colorado property owners to face astronomical tax increases next year, After School Satan Club launching first Colorado chapter, but organizer promises "we are not devil worshippers", PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado landlords say eviction-protection proposal could make dropping problem renters too hard, No more greasy pizza boxes, paper towels or takeout containers in Front Range compost bins come April 1, 5 can't-miss menus for Denver Restaurant Week, After teen's death, Denver East High students walk out to advocate for gun legislation, Boulder house where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Metro Denver housing market crosses firmly into negative territory in February, Kiszla: With Brendan Rodgers down and out, Kris Bryant could become $182 million face of worst team in Rockies history, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information, 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. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) 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. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. After losing his ability to conduct cremation or funeral home services in December, Kent's Silverthorne funeral parlor sat empty until this month when the new tenant, Colorado Funeral Homes . These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. 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. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. MONTROSE, Colo. (CBS4) - Federal authorities raided a funeral home in Montrose on Tuesday, at which the owner is under investigation for a side-business donating bodies for education and. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Hess continues running a dual operation. 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. 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. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. 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. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. The. The allegations of offering free services and then selling body parts without the knowledge of the client family is beyond my scope of thinking as to what funeral directors should be doing. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. An Upstate New York funeral home proprietor is facing imminent criminal charges for allegedly keeping dead human bodies in "advanced states of decomposition" in his business and its detached garage, local officials announced Friday. There are no ethics there when you do that.. Responding to the investigations and details reported out of Montrose, Colorado lawmakers could become the first in the country to pass a law making it illegal for funeral home or crematory owners to operate as a body broker. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. 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. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. 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.. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. 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. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . 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. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. 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. After receiving the cremains, E.W. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. 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. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. 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. 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. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. His two shoulders went somewhere else. Thank you, she said before ending the call. Other charges against Hess will . All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. 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. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. 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. It was kind of creepy.. A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. 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. 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. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. 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. 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. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. She said that one month she got about $40,000 from selling donated bodies. Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. The funeral home's owners, Megan Hess, 43, and her mother . 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. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. No one returned her voicemails. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. Some of those family members are now questioning if the services were held free of charge while Donor Services sent some of the remains (body parts) to clients for payments without the knowledge and consent of family members. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. 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. 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 . [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. Contact7 Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski traveled to Montrose and talked to more than a half dozen family members now victims about what they describe as a scheme to profit from their pain. 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. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. 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. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. 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. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. You are looking at how to make money.. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. 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. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. NBC10 . By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. 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. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. . 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. 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 . 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. 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. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. 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. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. Its sickening, said Hanson. 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. 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. 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. Though Koch dissected bodies in the back room at Sunset Mesa, they claimed that the body had to be sent out for harvesting, Eberspacher said. 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. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. 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 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. 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. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated.
Shooting In Portsmouth, Va Today,
Jackson Browne 1973 Tour,
Airport Meme Social Distancing,
Yellowstone Beth And Rip Wedding,
Articles C