The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. This content was originally published here. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. 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. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. You are looking at how to make money.. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. 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. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. 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. 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. But selling body parts such as heads, arms and spines which is what Hess did for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. Thats when E.W. When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. Its really an underground industry that most people dont know about, said attorney Michael Burg. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. 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 news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. The body was identified by fingerprints as Victor Akubuo, 42, from Southern . Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. 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Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. Extra charges are assessed if a body is embalmed or a funeral director is involved. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. Kent kept giving excuses, Cavanagh said. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. 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. ), 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. 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 FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Funeral Director Daily take: I have a hard time fathoming what may have went on at this funeral home. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. 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. 06, 2021. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. The true-crime podcast "Criminal," which covered the story in its 131st episode, reports that when Grand Junction resident Debbie Schum visited Sunset Mesa after the death of her friend in 2017, the funeral home's director, Megan Hess, told Schum that she could not provide cremation services unless Schum paid her $1,000 upfront. 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. 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. 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. Last August, police received a complaint that funds provided to. Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. It was kind of creepy.. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. When Mabry and Eberspacher went to Sunset Mesa the morning after Dunlap died, Hess and Koch said they could not locate the eye, Eberspacher said. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. 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. 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 . 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . Its a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa. (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. Hess had created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. 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. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found Breathing at Funeral Home The incident happened at the Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, the. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. . Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings. 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. 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. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Charles Lynch to pay them a last tribute. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to . The operators of a Colorado funeral home suspected of running a side business selling body parts without consent have been indicted on fraud and illegally transporting diseased cadavers. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. "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. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. There are no ethics there when you do that. Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. What You Need To Know. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Legal Statement. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. 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. 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. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. 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). 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. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack The gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . High Country News reports that, duringthe initial investigation, the FBI tested 128 samples of remains tied to Sunset Mesa. 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. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. 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. 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. 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. (If they've been left standing. It was kinda creepy., It is totally unregulated, said Burg. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. 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. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. 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. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. 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. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. 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. Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". The next year,. Colorado Funeral Homes. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. 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. 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. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. . 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. 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. Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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.. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 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. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. 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. 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true].