Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. 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. They were affiliated with her funeral business. 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. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. 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 are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. I just figured it was a legitimate business., When asked by Denver7 if she ever heard bodies being dismembered, Hampson said, you could hear the machine going. Asked if that machine was a saw, she said, Yes, you could hear that in the room (a back room at the funeral home). Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The report also noted that a former employee at Sunset Mesa was troubled by Hess mother, who was responsible for embalming and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. Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales case 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. 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. 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. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . Market data provided by Factset. Amid FBI investigation, state closes case on Montrose funeral home Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. In their filing, prosecutors stressed the "macabre nature" of Hess' scheme and described it as one of the most significant body parts cases in recent U.S. history. 'Tragic' cases prompt bill making it easier to inspect Colorado funeral 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. 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. 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 state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . Thats when E.W. 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. Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director - Tennessee Lookout By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 The lawsuit claims the three sold torsos for $1,000, a pelvis with upper legs for $1,200. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. 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. 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. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Colorado funeral home owner accused of stealing body parts pleads When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. 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. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. or redistributed. . I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country, Hanson said. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. 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.. 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. FBI scrutinizes funeral home that also makes money selling - Reuters Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. FBI probe into Colorado funeral home that doubled as body - Fox News Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . What You Need To Know. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . And much like E.W. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Trump Vindicated, Biden Proven A Liar As NYT Admits Trump Rollback Had I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. Few state laws provide any oversight. Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling No one would pick up the phone. 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. Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation Other staff members also said that it was never disclosed to donor families that the corpses would be sold for profit a potentially illegal practice. 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. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. 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. Funeral home investigation: What to know about the discovery of 31 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. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. 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 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. 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. Montrose funeral home owner who allegedly sold - The Colorado Sun Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. Source: Bodies stacked up at Jeffersonville funeral home after - WDRB Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. Hess continues running a dual operation. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. Funeral Home Owner Brian Barnett Faces Charges in N.Y. Probe - Law & Crime She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. Hess committed crimes, prosecutors said, when she defrauded relatives of the deceased by lying about cremations and by dissecting bodies and selling them without permission. 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. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 'None of this happened the way you think it did' - High Country News The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Market data provided by Factset. 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. Thank you for thinking of me.. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Other charges against Hess will . 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. The reality of body brokers profiting from the sale of body parts has made national and international headlines following government raids in Arizona and Colorado in recent years. After receiving the cremains, E.W. Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following Funeral home owner who dismembered corpses, sold body parts sentenced In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. 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. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. All rights reserved. The Green Funeral. 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. Colorado funeral home operators sentenced for selling body parts Body of complaints piled up: State knew of funeral home concerns long 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 . In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. 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, funeral flowers & funeral planning 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. 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. . . 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Authorities are now investigating. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death.
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