They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. I just had the impression that something wasnt right all along. He said neither Hess nor Koch told him that his friends body parts would be sold. Pam Boyd/pboyd@vaildaily.com. No one returned her voicemails. 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. 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. 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. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations.. It comes on the heels of a law passed in 2020 that. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 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. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. 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 . 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 . According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . 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. 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. The owner of the funeral homes, Shannon Kent, is also Lake Countys coroner. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. 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. Hess' mother, Shirley Koch, has also been indicted. First published on Wed 6 Jul 2022 10.36 EDT. Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people, Hess said. 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. 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. You know, they can't put his head back on his body, they can't put his arms and legs back on his body. That's part of my nightmare. 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. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. The NBC10 Investigators found bodies inside an unlicensed funeral home in Chester, Pennsylvania. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. 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 . "This is the most emotionally draining. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Hess made donating a body online easy. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. I just figured it was a legitimate business., When asked by Denver7 if she ever heard bodies being dismembered, Hampson said, you could hear the machine going. Asked if that machine was a saw, she said, Yes, you could hear that in the room (a back room at the funeral home). 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. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. 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. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. 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. 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. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. 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. 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. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. 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. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. . Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. Contact7 Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski traveled to Montrose and talked to more than a half dozen family members now victims about what they describe as a scheme to profit from their pain. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. 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. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. On Oct. 13, the state shut down both the Gypsum operation and . You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). And much like E.W. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts. 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 . They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.. I didnt believe in depression until I lost my baby, Cavanagh said. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. 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. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Burg and Teselles law firm is currently suing body brokers in both Colorado and Arizona. By: Tony Kovaleski Posted at 6:00 PM, Oct 31, 2019 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. 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.. Thats when E.W. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. or redistributed. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. DENVER -- To many it is simply the unthinkable. However, there was more going on beneath the surface. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. Chantal Reh. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Koch said she had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in, Escher said. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. 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. parents are now under investigation by the FBI. 06, 2021. 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. No one returned her voicemails. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent. Thank you for thinking of me.. But experts say its the underground black market that also contributes to the increased demand for body parts. Shannon and Staci Kent, 45, of Leadville were charged on Friday with attempted tampering with a deceased human body. 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. and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. "No, I did not," Hancock responded. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. by Mr. Leadville | Oct 26, 2020 | Leadville News. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Members of the FBI, along with Montrose law enforcement investigate the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building Tuesday morning, February 6, 2018. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. Other staff members also said that it was never disclosed to donor families that the corpses would be sold for profit a potentially illegal practice. 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. I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. 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. 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. are acquisitions larger in general? Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hesss personal assistant. Specifics of the scope of theFBI investigation are unclear. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. There are no ethics there when you do that. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. After a reporter asked questions about the websiteand her background, Hess removed the Add to Cart donation pages from her cremation website and cut the mention of the mortuary science degree from her online biography. The state's Department of Regulatory Agencies. 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. You could hear the machine going, she told Kovaleski. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. 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. 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. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. . Andrew Scheid has been the director at . 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. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. According to Reuters Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had seen their call volume increase from 59 in 2015 to 128 in 2017. 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. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hess's funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Hancock is one of more than five dozen family members currently suing the family that operated the now shut-down Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. She did. After receiving the cremains, E.W. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. 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. 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. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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 Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. You are looking at how to make money.. 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. After reading the states suspension order this week, two women told The Denver Post that the circumstances surrounding E.W. sound eerily familiar. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. E.W. 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. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. 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. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. 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. . A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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