Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. After an extensive investigation into this and dozens of similar cases, federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged the owners of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, on suspicion of illegally brokering the body parts of deceased individuals they were hired to cremate. Legal Statement. 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. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. 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. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. The Denver attorney is referring to the limited and nonexistent regulation nationwide and worldwide regarding the procurement and selling of bodies and body parts. 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. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. 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. 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. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". 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 is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. Extra charges are assessed if a body is embalmed or a funeral director is involved. The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. Reuters began examining the Hess companies more than a year ago as part of the news agencys exploration of the human body trade, a virtually unregulated industry that largely operates in the shadows. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. 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. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. 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 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. Leaking body bags, unrefrigerated remains: Colorado funeral homes under Megan Hess & Shirley Koch Sunset Mesa Funeral Home body parts scam 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. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. 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. Legal Statement. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH Authorities are now investigating. 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. florida medical examiner case search - aboutray16-eiga.com 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. (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 parts. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. are acquisitions larger in general? Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her moms body. The scope of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home and Donor Services remains unclear at this time while investigators are trying to get a handle on that issue. Colorado funeral home owner accused of stealing body parts pleads Charles "Paul" Lynch Obituary (1953 - 2023) | Yuma, Colorado Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. Megan Hess, a former Colorado funeral home director, chopped up over 500 . 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. ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Megan Hess pleads guilty, faces 20 years in prison - The Colorado Sun There are no ethics there when you do that. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. 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. 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 . . The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. There are no ethics there when you do that.. 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. Market data provided by Factset. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. "Hess and Koch's conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.". It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. 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. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. What You Need To Know. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . Forty-fifth President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been exonerated of false claims from the radical left and the Biden administration that Trump was responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, due to a rollback. And as of. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborn's cremains mixed. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. Other charges against Hess will . 06, 2021. After Mabry threatened to sue Hess for losing the eye, he said Hess wrote him a check: $500, a refund of the money Dunlap had paid to donate plus $5. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. 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. I go to sleep with the visions of him being dismembered with a power saw, said Ruthie Pettyjohn, whose sons body parts were allegedly sold. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. Colorado funeral home known for history of misconduct | AP News All rights reserved. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. A price list uncovered during an ongoing lawsuit against an Arizona body broker provides insight into the value of body parts and the profits that can be produced. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. Hess made donating a body online easy. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess 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. Hess, along with her mother and father, are all named in a lawsuit, which accuses them of using a backroom to dismember cadavers with a power saw and stack body parts in coolers. Hiring funeral directors: Do you look for IQ or EQ? DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. seattletimes.com: Colorado funeral home owner sentenced in body sales State investigates 'Buried by the Bernards' funeral home - WREG.com But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. . 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. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. 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. Kent operates six funeral homes in the states high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne. 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. 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. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. . Indiana funeral home fell behind on processing bodies, which began to Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. 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. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. . Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling . When asked if it contained her husbands cremains, she said, I dont know.. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. ThinkStock via Getty Images. 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. N.Y. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . However, there was more going on beneath the surface. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. As a matter of fact, the FBI has set up a hot line and e-mail address for potential victims of the businesses to contact with information. Peck was given another six months of probation. 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. And it is not against the law to operate a so-called body broker firm from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory. Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director - Tennessee Lookout 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. The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . 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. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Colorado Funeral Home Caught Selling Bodies Intended For Cremation A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. After receiving the cremains, E.W. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. (William Woody, Special to the Colorado Sun), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, (720) 263-2338 Call, text, Signal or WhatsApp, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. 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. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. 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. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Colo. funeral home accused of doubling as body parts broker - KMGH On July 2, Jeffersonville Police officials announced dozens of bodies were found decomposing inside a funeral home in the Southern Indiana city, just across the river from Louisville. Coroner and Wife Accused of Running Funeral Home From Hell 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 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. In 2018, Schum got a call from FBI Special Agent John Busch, who told her that Sunset Mesa had sold not just her friend's body, but many others. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 4th 2023 at 10:30 AM at the First Church of the Nazarene (505 E Beatty Ave, Yuma, CO 80759). Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. 2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia 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. Amid FBI investigation, state closes case on Montrose funeral home Colorado regulators can now inspect funeral homes and crematories 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. 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. In addition, a lawsuit has been filed by Shirley Hollenback and her daughter alleging that the remains she received purported to be the cremation ashes of her husband are somebody elses remains and not those of her husband. 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 funeral home's owners, Megan Hess, 43, and her mother . Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. Bankman-Fried can have flip phone, limited internet while on bail, US proposes, Biden assembles team of allies to boost re-election campaign, Reporting by John Shiffman; Editing by Paul Simao and Richard Chang, Michigan judge dismisses school staff as defendants in lawsuits over mass shooting, American Airlines, flight attendants union seek mediation in contract negotiations, Macron ends Africa tour with wish for fair reset of ties, Turkey's Erdogan dismisses opposition split and says his ruling alliance will stay on same path, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party calls for opposition unity after split, In Turkey's quake-devasted city of Antakya, an antiques seller is determined to stay put, Eni agrees deal with UAE's ADNOC as Italy rebuilds relationship, Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. As you likely know by now, Diamond of the famous 'Diamond and Silk' sister duo, has passed away at the young age of only 51.
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