There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. 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. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 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. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. But it provided an important public service, she said. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. 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. . However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. 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. 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. Thank you, she said before ending the call. 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. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. There are currently 350 funeral home listings for the state of Colorado and we provide all the cemetery information for the state as well. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for 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. 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. A funeral home in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island is under RCMP investigation for allegations of financial irregularities. 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. Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties encountered a strong odor of decomposition when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads. 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. . A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Its a profit business. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. There are people and businesses who spend millions and millions of dollars," Teselle added, "trafficking in these body parts as if they were nothing more than cans of soup or loaves of bread., I was pretty shocked, said Jacque Hampson, a former employee of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. ThinkStock via Getty Images. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. The friend would then place the glass eye in an urn containing half of Dunlaps ashes and bury the urn atop the grave of Dunlaps father in Telluride, Colorado. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. "It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.". 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. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. 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. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. . No one returned her voicemails. 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. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. It was kind of creepy.. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. In reality, Burg added, they are just trying to get those bodies free and then they are going to chop them up themselves in parts and make money off the bodies.. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. It can't be fixed, said Hancock. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. 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 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. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. 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 receiving the cremains, E.W. No one would pick up the phone. pleaded guilty to fraud in July after a . 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. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. [wpforms id=436 title=true description=true]. The. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. Legal Statement. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. MONTROSE, Colorado The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing former employees of a funeral home whose owner runs a side business on the same premises selling human body parts. 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. Theyre united by the pain of believing they purchased cremation services for their loved ones, knowing they never agreed to let Hess dismember the bodies. The next year,. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Its for profit and people dont realize there is a huge demand for cadavers and body parts., That demand comes from all over the world including medical schools, law enforcement agencies, the military and a variety of other industries looking to legitimately purchase bodies and body parts for credible research. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. It described a body broker as a company that acquires dead bodies, dissects them and sells the parts for profit to medical researchers, training organizations and other buyers.. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. They are struggling with claims she created a product with a power saw and angry that she ultimately profited from the sale of arms, heads legs, torsos even whole bodies. Officials also found the "post-cremation remains" of 16 people, according . She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. "Hess and Koch's conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.". No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. In February 2018, Lina Cavanagh lost her baby at an advanced stage of pregnancy a loss that took its toll on her, both physically and emotionally. Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. The Bailey-Kent Funeral Home was the only option given to her for cremation under a certain weight, she said. . 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. Take a look at some of Colorado's most notorious crimes. 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. 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. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. 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. Its sickening, said Hanson. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. 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. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. 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. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. 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 . Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. . A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. 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. All rights reserved. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. or redistributed. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. 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. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. Read on to see why: At a glance, the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home appeared to be a business helping locals through the loss of their loved ones. The owners of that funeral home are facing charges of desecrating human remains more than four months after investigators found the body, which had been stored in a non-refrigerated room for years. 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. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . 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. 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. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking. What You Need To Know. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. Hess continues running a dual operation. Peck was given another six months of probation. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. 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. No one would pick up the phone. 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. 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 Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. 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. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems, said Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Arizona, and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association. According to Jeffersonville Police Major Isaac Parker, the department began its investigation of the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville on Friday. Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. E.W. 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. The gruesome details of the case which authorities say included more than 500 victims drew international attention and shined a light on the . . 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 Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). It is the only state in the country that does not license funeral home and. 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. In 2009, Hess also created a nonprofit called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, d/b/a Donor Services, a body broker service operated out of the same location as SMFD. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. MONTROSE, Colo. (CBS4) - Federal authorities raided a funeral home in Montrose on Tuesday, at which the owner is under investigation for a side-business donating bodies for education and. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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 . Did you ever consent to have this family mutilate your husbands body? asked Denver7. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. 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. A Colorado funeral home is under federal investigation over accusations it doubled as a body broker firm, buying and selling human body parts, a Reuters special report revealed Tuesday. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. 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. 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. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. 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. 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. NBC10 . More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? ", Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court, "I've worn many masks to cover the pain. 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Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. Two months later, after hearing nothing from Hess, Schum went to Sunset Mesa to retrieve her friend's ashes. 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. 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. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. 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. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. a contrarian view? I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated.