a contrarian view? 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. Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations. Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. All rights reserved. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. 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. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. 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. Reuters could find no other operation active in the United States that houses a funeral home, crematory and body broker in the same facility and under the same ownership. 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. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. NBC10 . Though Koch dissected bodies in the back room at Sunset Mesa, they claimed that the body had to be sent out for harvesting, Eberspacher said. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . . The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Ducks, Used body bags, medical gloves and other surgical equipment with dried bodily fluid on them piled on the floor, Bodily fluids leaking out of a body bag containing an individual who had not been refrigerated, A container of animal remains leaking fluids, Several bodies in refrigeration wrapped in sheets or blankets without identifying tags or paperwork, An unmarked casket containing a stillborn infant that was abandoned, the suspension order states, Paperwork scattered several feet deep on the floor. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. Other charges against Hess will be dropped under a plea agreement, the Sentinel said. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. Why their loved ones were stolen from them, and they were given back dry cement or sand and told it was loved ones ashes, said Teselle. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. E.W. 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. An indictment filed last week by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver alleges 43-year-old Megan Hess, of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services, harvested body parts from hundreds of dead people without any authorization from their families. 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. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. And as of. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. Authorities are now investigating. 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. . parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. 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 No one returned her voicemails. 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. 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. 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. ), Windsors Newest Hot Spot is Open and Smells of Glorious Bacon [Photos], The Cheapest Home in Weld County is Selling for Less Than $90K, Local Fort Collins Photographer Wins 3rd Grammy in the Visual Arts, WATCH: This Deleted Scene From The Office Totally Calls Out Colorado, The 2023 Cheyenne Frontier Days Concert Lineup Has Been Announced, This Weeks Larimer Countys Most Wanted: Dallas Rusk, 3 Northern Colorado Districts in Top 10 for Slow Internet Access, New Life Planned for this Beloved Greeley Building, the dark history behind the town's funeral home, READ: This 1993 Steamboat Springs Murder Became One of the Nation's Most Chilling Cases. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. (Google). The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. 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. 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. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! 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.. At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. "This is the most emotionally draining. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. 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. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. 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. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. He had been dismembered. 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. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess home in Montrose. . Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. . When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. 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. No one would pick up the phone. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess 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 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. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. 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. 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. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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.
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