colorado funeral home under investigation

Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. Part 8: Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary-body broker, including allegations of deceptive marketing and an account of how gold dental work was removed from corpses and sold. Hess made donating a body online easy. This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. Finally Reh and her boyfriend went to the funeral home with the expectation that they would see their baby. Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Get to know all 17 Denver mayor candidates , Funeral homes owned by a Colorado coroner under investigation following discovery of unrefrigerated body, unlabeled cremains, Owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors indicted for illegally selling human body parts, Former Montrose funeral home director accused of selling body parts loses state insurance license, This really has shattered me: Betrayal, anger, grief haunt victims of Colorado funeral home that sold loved ones body parts without permission, Denver weather: Strong winds and low humidity will elevate fire concerns Sunday, Vehicle owners can register for car theft deterrent program DenverTrack, Data breach of DPS computer servers affects all district employees, officials say, Colorado psychologists gain authority to prescribe mental health medication, Colorado property owners to face astronomical tax increases next year, After School Satan Club launching first Colorado chapter, but organizer promises "we are not devil worshippers", PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado landlords say eviction-protection proposal could make dropping problem renters too hard, No more greasy pizza boxes, paper towels or takeout containers in Front Range compost bins come April 1, 5 can't-miss menus for Denver Restaurant Week, After teen's death, Denver East High students walk out to advocate for gun legislation, Boulder house where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Metro Denver housing market crosses firmly into negative territory in February, Kiszla: With Brendan Rodgers down and out, Kris Bryant could become $182 million face of worst team in Rockies history, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information, 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. 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. No one would pick up the phone. 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. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. 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. Koch told the judge she was sorry and took responsibility for her actions. 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. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. 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. My mother and my mothers body has been desecrated.. 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. 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. 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. Im not interested. 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. 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. Hess' lawyer said she has been unfairly vilified as a "witch," a "monster" and a "ghoul," when instead she is a "broken human being" whose conduct can be attributed to a traumatic brain injury at age 18. No one returned her voicemails. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. 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. Bailey-Kent Funeral Home, pictured at left, is one of two funeral homes owned by Shannon Kent now under criminal investigation. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. There are no ethics there when you do that. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. 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.. 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. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. 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. What You Need To Know. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack heres a recap of our months top stories, Carriage Services reports Services and Revenue drops in 2022. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. The emotional, daylong hearing brought to a close a five-year legal odyssey that began when the FBI raided the funeral home in February 2018, following a Reuters investigation that found Sunset Mesa to be unlike any other business in the country. Prosecutors said she lied to more than 200 families, who received cremated ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers. In Colorado, there are few regulations to catch shoddy behavior, such as illegitimate body trading, by mortuaries. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. 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. a contrarian view? 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. 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. "Our sweet mother, they dismembered her," Erin Smith said, selling her shoulders, knees and feet for profit. 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. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. Two funeral homes owned by Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent are under investigation after law enforcement earlier this month found an unrefrigerated body, an abandoned stillborn infant, bags of unl No one returned her voicemails. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. 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. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because when it became the 38th state, the United States turned 100 on August 1, 1876. You are looking at how to make money.. The next year,. Colorado regulators shut down the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2018. They desecrated his little body, she said. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. 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. 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. With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Emmanuel Macron shared his vision of a renewed partnership with Africa in which it stands equal with France, as he concluded a tour where he has sought to dispel France's image as an arrogant former colonial power whilst bidding for future influence. 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. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The judge ordered that Hess and Koch be sent to prison immediately. She showed Denver7 the container that she was given. The remains Hess returned to families were also not those of their loved ones. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. (If they've been left standing. At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. Colorado Funeral Homes. A Colorado funeral home operator who was accused of selling and stealing body parts pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the US justice department . This comes after a dozen . I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. In another call two months later, Staci Kent responded to a death scene without a body bag, the indictment states, which led to an argument with law enforcement. She mentioned on several occasions about how much money she would be getting per month, which blew my mind, said Jennifer Henderson, a former floral designer for Sunset Mesa. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. 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. 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. 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. At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed. 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. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. 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. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. Thank you, she said before ending the call. The Green Funeral. 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. Golden Gate's owner denies all allegations. 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. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. 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. Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images. (Google). The Daily Sentinel reports that Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. A woman in Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally selling body parts. And much like E.W. Some of those family members are now questioning if the services were held free of charge while Donor Services sent some of the remains (body parts) to clients for payments without the knowledge and consent of family members. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. 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. You are looking at how to make money.. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services building in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., December 16, 2017. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. Legal Statement. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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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. [the FBI told me] his head was sent to so and so. According to the Johnstown, N.Y. Police Department, Brian M. Barnett, 35, who owns the since-shuttered Ehle . No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education. Jan 3 (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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. But it provided an important public service, she said. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family.

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