In February of 2018, Colorado regulators shut down the funeral home at the same time the FBI was investigating claims families did not receive the real cremains of their loved ones. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Hes already facing charges of official misconduct and perjury stemming from allegations last year that he sent his wife Staci to multiple death scenes even though she wasnt authorized to serve as a deputy coroner. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. A Colorado funeral home is under federal investigation over accusations it doubledas a body broker firm, buying and selling human body parts, aReuters special report revealedTuesday. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. A Colorado funeral home operator who was accused of selling and stealing body parts pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the US justice department . Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. Funeral home owners charged with desecrating human remains . They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. E.W. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. There is also evidence of Donor Services shipping at least 26 boxes containing body parts to various parts of the world in 2016 according to evidence that has been recovered. While operating Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, Hess and Koch sold remains of the deceased for body broker services without family consent and gave families ashes that were. Megan Hess, the former operator of a Montrose funeral home convicted of selling body parts without family consent, was . Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. or redistributed. Colorado Funeral Home Caught Selling Bodies Intended For Cremation Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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 charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. 'Tragic' cases prompt bill making it easier to inspect Colorado funeral 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. 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. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. This comes after a dozen . But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. 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. 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. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. 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. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. 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. 2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia . Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas is accused of a range of misdeeds, from not embalming or refrigerating bodies in a . The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them. 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 . By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. 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. Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. 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. Arnold Roger Tesnow Obituary (1944 - 2023) | Colorado Springs, Colorado Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose handled the funeral . When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. Trump Vindicated, Biden Proven A Liar As NYT Admits Trump Rollback Had Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to refrain from contacting Hess employees for any reason.. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. State suspends operations of Leadville, Gypsum funeral homes This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. 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. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. Sunset Mesa Funeral Home Operators Arrested For Illegal Body Part The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. 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. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. 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. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. Indiana funeral home fell behind on processing bodies, which began to Instead, the media was interested in the dark history behind the town's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. 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. She did. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Funeral-home owner gets 20 years in prison for cutting up dead bodies Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. Legal Statement. There are no ethics there when you do that.. 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. 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. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. There are no ethics there when you do that. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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. "This is the most emotionally draining. Part 8: Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary-body broker, including allegations of deceptive marketing and an account of how gold dental work was removed from corpses and sold. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. 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. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. Funeral home investigation: What to know about the discovery of 31 Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. On Monday, the family of Ramon Lara Castillo a 63-year-old Nashville house painter who succumbed to liver cancer in October 2020 filed a federal lawsuit against former funeral director Reid Van Ness and the operators of a funeral home in Lewisburg, Tenn. Roommates and friends of Castillo paid Van Ness $1,800 to ship the body home to his . The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. Its a profit business. The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. 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. 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. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Arnold Roger Tesnow (Colorado Springs, Colorado), born in Worth, Illinois, who passed away on February 25, 2023 at the age of 78. "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. 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.. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . "No, I did not," Hancock responded. The Green Funeral. GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO: On allegations of fraud and illegally selling body parts, a former owner of a funeral home in Colorado was given a 20-year term in federal prison. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. 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. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. This content was originally published here. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. . 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. 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. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. Colorado Funeral Homes. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. Jeffersonville funeral home under investigation after police find Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. 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. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, When Reuters reported earlier this year about the unusual twin businesses of owner Megan Hess, federal agents raided the facility and state regulators ordered the funeral home to be shut down. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. 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. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. 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. 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. Market data provided by Factset. Body of complaints piled up: State knew of funeral home concerns long All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. 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. 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. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. I'll never be OK.". 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. You are looking at how to make money.. 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. Colo. funeral home accused of doubling as body parts broker - KMGH Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. No one would pick up the phone. 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. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Licenses revoked for Pocatello funeral home - KTVB 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. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. What You Need To Know. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Crapaud funeral home being investigated for allegations of financial A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Hess made donating a body online easy. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. 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 . The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. And much like E.W. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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. 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. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. Non-compete agreements, Customer Experience, Community Engagement. 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. High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. 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. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. 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. Thank you, she said before ending the call. Megan Hess pleads guilty, faces 20 years in prison - The Colorado Sun 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. 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. 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. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post.