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In the late aughts, the town of Montrose, Colorado, made national headlines. 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. 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. They desecrated his little body, she said. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and a love of veterinary medicine.. MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) A Lancaster County funeral home and its director are facing formal disciplinary action and are under investigation by the state. 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. I see his body parts floating in space and I keep trying to grab them and put him back and I can't! Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. 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. 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. Sam Tabachnik is a roving reporter for The Denver Post, focusing on stories outside metro Denver. 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. But it provided an important public service, she said. 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. The Daily Sentinel Megan Hess The suspension order details a 2019 instance in which an unnamed individual arranged with Kents funeral home for the cremation of their stillborn child. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Just about any adult can run for coroner in Colorado. 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. When Mabry and Eberspacher went to Sunset Mesa the morning after Dunlap died, Hess and Koch said they could not locate the eye, Eberspacher said. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The name of the state is derived form the Spanish . I thought it was something that needs to be corrected," said state Senator Larry Crowder, one of the bills sponsors. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. 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. As she mourned the loss of her son, Cavanagh was referred to the Kent Funeral Home in Gypsum to do the cremation. Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Thats when E.W. Hancocks story started after her husband, Thomas, passed away. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. These illegitimate businesses are buying and selling body parts just like anything off the shelf at Walmart, added Teselle. A former employee has alleged misconduct regarding the disposal of the deceased at Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. 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. Staci Kent, however, wouldnt let them see the baby, Reh said. . Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. In 2020, authorities charged the two with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials. 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. These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. Updated: 8:07 PM MDT September 14, 2021. They both plan to file complaints with the Department of Regulatory Affairs. There are no ethics there when you do that. 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. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science. 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. All they got was the urn and a death certificate no other paperwork. 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 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. 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. 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). Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years. She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day, said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess. There are no ethics there when you do that.. And much like E.W. 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. 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. Enter your email address to join 3,177 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles. 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. Feb 4, 2023, 5:26 PM SGT. 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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. Kent is already facing charges of perjury and official misconduct for sending wife Staci Kent, who is not authorized to act as a deputy coroner, to death scenes on at least three occasions, according to a September 2019 grand jury indictment. In cases like Schum's, where a family did agree to donate a body part, Hess sold more than she had permission to. (REUTERS). Investigation into the allegations are ongoing with the Texas Funeral Services . and Cavanagh, Reh had an immensely difficult time reaching the Kents, the phone ringing unanswered for weeks. Colorado regulators shut Sunset Mesa down in February 2018, KMGH-TV reported. Pictures show bodies stacked in hallways and unrefrigerated rental trucks. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. Connie Hansons sons body parts were also allegedly sold. 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. 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. Kent also still faces second-degree official misconduct charges stemming from a September 2019 grand jury indictment in the Fifth Judicial District. 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. 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. In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language could be confusing to people.. The FBI started looking into Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services a few months after it was discovered that both businesses were being operated out of the same building and by the same owner, according to thereport. Its not something that can be fixed., Hancock was notified by the FBI that her husbands body parts had been sold without her consent. some timely learning opportunities for our readers, Dont forget Low-tech to build your brand. The article also tells about how Sunset Mesa Funeral Home handled some services free of charge. A A A Colorado-based funeral home director has been sentenced to 20 years in prison stemming from a litany of charges including fraud and illegally selling the body parts or bodies of approximately 500 individuals whose families did not consent to that practice.

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