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. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Sunset Mesa Funeral Home Operators Arrested For Illegal Body Part . 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. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. 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. 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 . There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. The most expensive prices were for an upper torso that included a head and arms ($4,000) and the cost of an entire body was $5,000, according to the price list. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. 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. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. 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 . 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. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales Im not interested. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. The report also noted that a former employee at Sunset Mesa was troubled by Hess mother, who was responsible for embalming and dismembering the dead bodies. . Both Reh and Cavanagh said they want to get the ashes analyzed at the University of Colorado to see if they actually belong to their babies. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. 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.. After receiving the cremains, E.W. 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. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. After receiving the cremains, E.W. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. 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. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. 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. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. After a reporter asked questions about the websiteand her background, Hess removed the Add to Cart donation pages from her cremation website and cut the mention of the mortuary science degree from her online biography. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. 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 Colorado and most other states, it also is legal for funeral homes to sell items recovered from dead bodies, such as gold dental work. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. Fo 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. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. State suspends operations of Leadville, Gypsum funeral homes Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. FBI scrutinizes Colorado funeral home with side business selling body They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. Eaton Family Funeral Home Ordway, Colorado - imortuary.com This content was originally published here. 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. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. . 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. 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. Two months later, after hearing nothing from Hess, Schum went to Sunset Mesa to retrieve her friend's ashes. Jeffersonville funeral home under investigation after police find Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . Hess, along with her mother and father, are all named in a lawsuit, which accuses them of using a backroom to dismember cadavers with a power saw and stack body parts in coolers. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. At her funeral home, Hess charged families up to $1,000 for cremations that never occurred, prosecutors said, and she offered others free cremations in exchange for a body donation. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director - Tennessee Lookout I'll never be OK.". 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. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. 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. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. 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. Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes. "No, I did not," Hancock responded. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. 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. On March 16, the director of the Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration sent Kent a letter of admonition after a state investigator found unembalmed, unrefrigerated bodily remains in his Gypsum funeral home more than 24 hours from the date of death. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true]. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. FBI probe into Colorado funeral home that doubled as body - Fox News Colorado Funeral Home Owners Charged With Brokering Body Parts 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. Owner of funeral home under investigation had history of violations 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. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. ThinkStock via Getty Images. Colorado funeral home operators sentenced for selling body parts The Green Funeral. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Thank you for thinking of me.. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. All rights reserved. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. Montrose, Colorado: A former funeral home operator pleads guilty to 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. N.Y. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found are acquisitions larger in general? Funeral homes owned by Lake County coroner under investigation Coroner and Wife Accused of Running Funeral Home From Hell This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. 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. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. E.W. Jan 3 (Reuters) - A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. Funeral Home Owner Brian Barnett Faces Charges in N.Y. Probe - Law & Crime Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. 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.. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. They were affiliated with her funeral business. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. 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. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. 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. 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. 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. 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. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? You are looking at how to make money.. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Funeral home owner who dismembered corpses, sold body parts sentenced some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hess's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. A A A Colorado-based funeral home director has been sentenced to 20 years in prison stemming from a litany of charges including fraud and illegally selling the body parts or bodies of approximately 500 individuals whose families did not consent to that practice. Authorities are now investigating. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. Its sickening, said Hanson. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. 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. 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. Colorado regulators can now inspect funeral homes and crematories And much like E.W. 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. Colorado funeral home known for history of misconduct | AP News 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. 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. Colorado Funeral Homes, funeral flowers & funeral planning Its a profit business. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. What You Need To Know. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. 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. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according .