Colorado funeral home known for history of misconduct | AP News 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. . They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. florida medical examiner case search - aboutray16-eiga.com The next year,. 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. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. 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. This content was originally published here. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. 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. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. 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. 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. 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 . According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. 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. 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. The gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . 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.. 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. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. Owner of funeral home under investigation had history of violations Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. Thats when E.W. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. State Bans Coroner Shannon Kent From Private Business After Remains, Waste Found At Home-Based Colorado Funeral Home December 3, 2020 / 7:33 AM / CBS Colorado Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. N.Y. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales SCI 4Q Revenue and Year End Revenue lower than comparables, Funeral Director Daily, The business of Funeral Care. 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. 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. 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. 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. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. The true-crime podcast "Criminal," which covered the story in its 131st episode, reports that when Grand Junction resident Debbie Schum visited Sunset Mesa after the death of her friend in 2017, the funeral home's director, Megan Hess, told Schum that she could not provide cremation services unless Schum paid her $1,000 upfront. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. 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. 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 Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. 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. Read on to see why: At a glance, the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home appeared to be a business helping locals through the loss of their loved ones. As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. 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. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. She did. 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. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. GRAND JUNCTION A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. 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. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). But the business arrangement is highly unusual. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam 2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia 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 That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. 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. 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. 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News . Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. 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. First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. Colorado does not regulate body brokers. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. 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. That's part of my nightmare. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. The details of the plea agreement are unknown, but a trial for Hess' mother is still on track to proceed. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. 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.. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved There are many events that have unfolded over the past couple weeks involving Downard Funeral Home, some including Idaho State University (ISU). The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. NBC10 . Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. 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. 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. In at least dozens of instances, Hess and Koch did not follow family wishes, and neither discussed nor obtained authorization for Donor Services to transfer decedents' bodies or . Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. 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. Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborns cremains mixed with portions of adult remains as well as metal fragments. 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 Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. "This is the most emotionally draining. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. 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. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh 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. 31 decomposed bodies, cremated remains discovered during Clark - WAVE 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. 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. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. Amid FBI investigation, state closes case on Montrose funeral home Sunset Mesa, like all other funeral homes in Colorado, is required by state law to have a death certificate filed with the vital records office before obtaining a disposition permit. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. 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. 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. 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. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. It was kind of creepy.. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. I'll never be OK.". Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. 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. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. 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. 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. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. 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. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". Montrose, Colorado: A former funeral home operator pleads guilty to All rights reserved. While Sunset Mesa legally is permitted to own and operate both businesses, Reuters found that there was no other active instance where a funeral home, crematory and body broker had the same owner and were in the same facility. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following