My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. This comes after a dozen . Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. And it is not against the law to operate a so-called body broker firm from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory. 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. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. E.W. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. This content was originally published here. 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. 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. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. 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. . Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . His two shoulders went somewhere else. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. 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. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. 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. MONTROSE, Colorado The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing former employees of a funeral home whose owner runs a side business on the same premises selling human body parts. Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". 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. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. You are looking at how to make money.. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. 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. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. The surgical-training companies and other firms which bought the arms, legs, heads and torsos from Hess did not know they had been fraudulently obtained, prosecutors said. He had been dismembered. Its sickening, said Hanson. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. 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. 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. 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. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. The back of the brochure featured the logo Donate Life, the national brand that promotes organ donation and is managed by Donate Life America, a nonprofit group. Colorado Funeral Homes. 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. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . 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. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. It was kind of creepy.. 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. Chantal Reh. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. 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. 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 charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, (Google). 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. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. After receiving the cremains, E.W. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. No one returned her voicemails. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. 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. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. 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. . 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. 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. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. The next year,. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. John Wayne Gacy's house has since been torn down and replaced with a new residence, built on the same land where Gacy reportedly buried many of his victims. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. 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 . And much like E.W. 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. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. DALLAS The Texas Funeral Service Commission says it has opened an investigation into allegations of the mishandling of corpses at one of the most high-profile mortuaries in the state. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. 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 Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Koch said she had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in, Escher said. Last August, police received a complaint that funds provided to. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. They desecrated his little body, she said. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. 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. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. No one would pick up the phone. 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. 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. 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. Teselle said, Whats shocking to me is that theres not an outcry for there to be more legislation, theres not an outcry for the government to regulate and license these people.. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hess's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. His head and his arms from his elbows to his fingers, his legs from his knees to his toes, had been removed from his body and they had been sold.. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Peck was given another six months of probation. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. 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. 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. No one returned her voicemails. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. 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. 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. (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 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. a contrarian view? Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. On at least three occasions, Staci Kent allegedly responded to calls from law enforcement requesting a coroner at a death scene, according to the indictment. 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 industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. What You Need To Know. She did. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. 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. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. are acquisitions larger in general? 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 Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. 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. 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. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. 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. . Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. Bankman-Fried can have flip phone, limited internet while on bail, US proposes, Biden assembles team of allies to boost re-election campaign, Reporting by John Shiffman; Editing by Paul Simao and Richard Chang, Michigan judge dismisses school staff as defendants in lawsuits over mass shooting, American Airlines, flight attendants union seek mediation in contract negotiations, Macron ends Africa tour with wish for fair reset of ties, Turkey's Erdogan dismisses opposition split and says his ruling alliance will stay on same path, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party calls for opposition unity after split, In Turkey's quake-devasted city of Antakya, an antiques seller is determined to stay put, Eni agrees deal with UAE's ADNOC as Italy rebuilds relationship, Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. 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. 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. 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. 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. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. The FBI hired a lab to test the cremains given to the families, and they have determined the boxes of ash contain cement, sand and other non-human particles. 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. 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. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. 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. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. 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.. 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. The body was identified as that of 42 . I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. 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. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. Im not interested. There are no ethics there when you do that. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. (REUTERS). There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019
colorado funeral home under investigation
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