After receiving the cremains, E.W. 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. Hansons box included wires and what appear to be old batteries. The startling discovery led to a further investigation of oversight in the funeral industry. After receiving the cremains, E.W. Learn more about Colorado true crime stories in the gallery below. 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 . There are no ethics there when you do that. Now the women wonder how many others might have had the same experience. He covers everything from stolen art and towing to mobile homes and quirky stories that defy category. 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. N.Y. Now its possible its not my baby in the urn, Reh said. 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. 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. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. Details uncovered in the FBI investigation were shared with her. And as of. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them. (REUTERS). More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? PUBLISHED 8:21 PM CT Apr. 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. He had been dismembered. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. John Wayne Gacy House: Now. 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. 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. Another alleged victim said her mothers body was desecrated. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). 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. NBC10 . 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. Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them. 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. Shannon and Staci Kent did not respond to interview requests from The Denver Post. 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. In their filing, prosecutors stressed the "macabre nature" of Hess' scheme and described it as one of the most significant body parts cases in recent U.S. history. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. Reuters has reported in a report that you can read here that the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home of Montrose, Colorado, and its associated business, Donor Services, remains under investigation by the FBI. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. Reuters could not independently verify this figure. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. The home, located at 8215 W. Summerdale Ave., was sold for just shy of $400,000 in May 2021. We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up, said spokeswoman Erin Dolin. Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. 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. It is a business and it is a profit business, added Burg. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. 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. Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. 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. 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. 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. 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. The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess. 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 . 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. Further, the van was holding two other bodies that needed to be removed.. To betray that help, in a way that the businesses here are alleged to have done, brings nothing but a lack of credibility to all funeral service professionals. 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. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. All rights reserved. The Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed an active criminal investigation is underway. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. The price list is from an Arizona company shut down after an FBI raid five years ago. Hess continues running a dual operation. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. "Hess and Koch's conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.". "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. 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. She has been told parts of her husbands body were sold on the world-wide market. On March 17, the unsealed indictment revealed that this donor services business would harvest the human remains and then sell them, illegally and without the families' knowledge. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. A pelvis with upper legs went for $1,200, heads for $500, a knee for $250, and a foot for $125, according to a 2013 Donor Services price list reviewed by Reuters. And much like E.W. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. 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 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. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. 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. The Green Funeral. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. POCATELLO, Idaho A Pocatello funeral home under investigation by the Idaho Board of Morticians has had its licenses revoked. 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 . Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Ive been violated, said Alena Holloman. His two shoulders went somewhere else. ", Funeral home remains under federal investigation. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear. Unfortunately, the attention wasn't focused on the town's natural beauty or tourism opportunities. I told them it didnt make sense, Mabry said. Twenty-six victims described their horror at discovering what had happened to their loved ones. 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. Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers. or redistributed. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. (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. 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. You are looking at how to make money.. No one returned her voicemails. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said. I said I dont want to hear anymore.. The back of the brochure featured the logo Donate Life, the national brand that promotes organ donation and is managed by Donate Life America, a nonprofit group. Other charges against Hess will . 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. 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. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids. 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. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. . She did. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI. Propel Funeral Partners makes acquisitions. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. They were affiliated with her funeral business. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home. (McGovern said no industry regulated by the Division of Professions and Occupations has regulators assigned exclusively to it.) 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. 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. 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. 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. "We don't even have a name for a crime this heinous. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. 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. 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. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. 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. Ive had nightmares about it, said Fredericka Freddie Hancock. He has served as Lake County coroner since 2012 and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2018. The couple got dressed up in matching outfits and brought a special camera. 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. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. The next year,. 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. However, on Thursday, Colorado police arrested Shannon and Staci Kent after finding a decaying corpse in a funeral home they previously operated. Seeing how this chapter is opening up again is incredible, its unbelievable. 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. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. There are no ethics there when you do that.. According to theDenver Post, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Hess this year regarding a 2020 indictment against her and her mother. The body was identified as that of 42 . The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law.
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