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. She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. What You Need To Know. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. The indictment accuses Kent of allowing his wife to go out to death scenes as a deputy coroner, even though she took no oath and an appointment had not been filed with the county clerk, as required by law. The body was identified as that of 42 . Its for profit and people dont realize there is a huge demand for cadavers and body parts., That demand comes from all over the world including medical schools, law enforcement agencies, the military and a variety of other industries looking to legitimately purchase bodies and body parts for credible research. And as of. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. 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.. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. 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. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. 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. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. 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. "This is the most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced on the bench," U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello said during Tuesday's sentencing hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . 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. This compassionate help is the essence of what we do. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. E.W. A former Colorado funeral home operator has pleaded guilty to stealing and then selling hundreds of human bodies or body parts to people who were buying the remains for scientific, medical or . "Hess and Koch's conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.". Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. The next year,. 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.. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. Hancock is one of many family members who has learned the cremains she was given by the owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose contained items and materials that were not her husband. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. 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. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. . 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 woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. 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 . The brochure, provided to Reuters by Hess during the 2016 interview, continued this way: Every year, organ, eye and tissue transplants provide hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from disease, injury, trauma or blindness. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. 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. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. 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. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, I said I dont want to hear anymore.. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. 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. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. The. a contrarian view? In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. 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. 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.. 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. 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. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. 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. . Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath, are the words they used when asked to describe Hess. 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. 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. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said. 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. 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. They are struggling with claims she created a product with a power saw and angry that she ultimately profited from the sale of arms, heads legs, torsos even whole bodies. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . 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. There are no ethics there when you do that.. In February 2018, Lina Cavanagh lost her baby at an advanced stage of pregnancy a loss that took its toll on her, both physically and emotionally. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. Thank you, she said before ending the call. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. 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. Legal Statement. That's part of my nightmare. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. After contacting Hess in December about the content of the brochure, Dolin said Hess told the organ transplant group that the brochure in question was old and has not been used for some time.. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. You are looking at how to make money.. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. "Hess and Koch used their funeral home at times to essentially steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent and forged donor forms," prosecutor Tim Neff said in a court filing. 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.