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. 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. But days went by and she couldnt reach anyone. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. "Hess and Koch used their funeral home at times to essentially steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent and forged donor forms," prosecutor Tim Neff said in a court filing. A few days later, she was able to pick up the cremains, but like E.W., Cavanagh received no paperwork. Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. The. Im not interested. Koch's central role was chopping up the bodies, court records show. Torsos are a popular specimen these days, she wrote. But the business arrangement is highly unusual. Forty-fifth President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been exonerated of false claims from the radical left and the Biden administration that Trump was responsible for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, due to a rollback. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. 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. 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. 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. 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. Along with it would be a note reading: Heres looking at you. The rest of his ashes would be buried with Dunlaps mother in Denver. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO Sisters Layna and Janet Hutt hold photos of their father, Raymond Hutt, who died in 2016 at the age of 96. Both have become experts on the secret industry of selling body parts on a world wide market. 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 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. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. Kent also operates funeral homes in Silverthorne, Idaho Springs, Fairplay and Buena Vista. Below, find out where 25 of the most infamous crimes in history took place and what the locations are used for today. 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. Be an organ donor, a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. Arnold Roger Tesnow Obituary (1944 - 2023) | Colorado Springs, Colorado Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling She said, No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning, recalled Eberspacher. The recent parade of early deaths has hit close to home. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. Email address: Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation, Acquisitions, buy-outs, creative ideas. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. It is unbelievable, said Dave Teselle, a Denver-based attorney who represents Hancock and more than five dozen other families in a claim against the owners of Sunset Mesa and the companies who are accused of buying the body parts. Kent has not yet been arrested for the most recent incidents, which at the Leadville funeral home included authorities' discovery of an abandoned stillborn, according to the Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by Colorados Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. There are no ethics there when you do that. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. The body was identified as that of 42 . Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborn's cremains mixed. 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. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . Trial scheduled for ex-Lake County coroner, wife arrested after - KKTV The New York Times, a far-left outlet, admitted in a report that Trump's rollback of a rule from President Barack Colorado Funeral Homes. did not receive a contract for funeral services, and only received the cremains after several calls to Kent, the order states. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. 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. (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. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth. felt they were too heavy to be those of a stillborn child, and submitted them for analysis. The legislation has support from the state's largest trade association for funeral homes, the Colorado Funeral Directors Association. 06, 2021. Former workers told Reuters that Hess and Koch conducted unauthorized dismemberments of bodies, and a few weeks after a 2018 story was published, the FBI raided the business. Downard Funeral Home Under Investigation, ISU Involved They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH Thank you for thinking of me.. The Daily Sentinel reportsthat Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after entering the plea Tuesday in Grand Junction. She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death, said Holloman. MONTROSE, Colo. A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death. 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. Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: Be a hero. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. TX Funeral Service Commission Investigating Golden Gate - Spectrum News 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. Hess made donating a body online easy. 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. Charles "Paul" Lynch Obituary (1953 - 2023) | Yuma, Colorado 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. N.Y. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found The indictment accuses Kent of allowing his wife to go out to death scenes as a deputy coroner, even though she took no oath and an appointment had not been filed with the county clerk, as required by law. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. It was kind of creepy.. This whole situation, oh, I thought it was part of my past.. 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. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body This is a way we can eliminate or alleviate the black market on body parts, Crowder added. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Colorado Funeral Home Owners Charged With Brokering Body Parts Buyers ranged from educators and scientists to individuals in the medical industry. 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. 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. 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. I went through a very bad crisis losing the baby, Cavanagh said. 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. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Other charges against Hess will . N.Y. An agent with the FBI has interviewed at least four former employees who worked for funeral director and body broker Megan Hess, seeking information about how she operates her businesses, the former workers told Reuters. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. Records from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies showthis was not the first time Kent has been in the crosshairs of state regulators. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. She signed a contract with a Montrose funeral home to have his body cremated. No one would pick up the phone. FBI Raids Montrose Funeral Home Accused Of Donating - CBS News 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. The funeral home's owners, Megan Hess, 43, and her mother . Hiring funeral directors: Do you look for IQ or EQ? Colorado Funeral Home / Body Broker Continues Under Investigation As funeral directors, while we dont do everything perfect, we should have the best interest of our client families at heart. 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 When Schum hesitated, Hess said she would waive the cremation fee if Schum agreed to donate her friend's bladder to science. It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant; they must be donated. They desecrated his little body, she said. Its sickening, said Hanson. Donating bodies, selling the parts: Frequently asked questions. 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. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. All rights reserved. No one returned her voicemails. State investigates 'Buried by the Bernards' funeral home - WREG.com 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. Trump Vindicated, Biden Proven A Liar As NYT Admits Trump Rollback Had Chantal Reh, an Avon resident, went through a similar experience when she suffered a stillborn birth in August 2018. This all began when a severely decomposed body was reported by a state health inspector.