The Disturbing Funeral Home Scheme That Will Leave You Speechless
A former funeral home owner in Colorado has been charged with orchestrating an elaborate scheme that will leave you disturbed and speechless.
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The death of a loved one is an exceedingly trying time for any family. Funeral homes and the services they provide are meant to be resources that families can rely on whilst they grapple with their deep grief. Unfortunately, one former funeral home owner in Colorado took advantage of hundreds of families during their most vulnerable time by providing them with faulty cremation services and selling the deceased’s organs for profit over the course of a decade.
Megan Hess, the former owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home and body parts company Donor Services in Colorado, has pleaded guilty to charges that allege she knowingly deceived her customers by providing fake cremation services and then taking their loved one’s body parts and selling them for profit through her body parts company, as was first reported by Reuters. The scheme involved her providing Urns to families filled with cement mix and/or mixed human ashes. Authorities believe she did this to at least 811 deceased individuals without any knowledge of their families. She is believed to have primarily targeted low-income families in the Montrose, Colorado area, charging them $1,000 for cremations that never occurred.
Prosecutors working on the case estimate that Hess made hundreds and thousands of dollars as a result of her funeral home scheme. Through Donor Services, she sold various organs, limbs, spines, heads, and even entire human bodies. The remains were mostly found to have gone to medical, surgical, and educational facilities. Even more disturbing, is that she used each business to advertise the services of the other.
Hess is also facing additional charges related to her funeral home scheme and how she shipped the human remains. Investigations revealed that in numerous instances Hepatitis C-infected heads were shipped among cargo on commercial airline flights via American and United Airlines without having been properly labeled. Some disturbing e-mails were also recovered. In one e-mail Hess is gloating about her trip to a hospice and how she would have 3 spines soon for whoever needed them. “Meeting with hospice on the 4th….opening the flood gates of donors. They have 4-5 deaths a day. Get ready!!!!!! I have 3 spines when needed… How about a deal on full embalmed spines … $950,” read a portion of one of the recovered e-mails.
Hess’s mother, Shirley Koch, is also thought to have been involved in carrying out the decade-long funeral home scheme. However, Koch has elected to plead not guilty to any purported charges. Prosecutors are currently seeking for Hess to serve between 12 and 15 years in prison for her admitted crimes. Hess’s lawyer is seeking a less harsh sentence of only 2 years.
According to Reuters, two of the impacted families spoke out at Hess’s initial hearing. They expressed their pain and confusion but also were hopeful that they could learn the full scope of what happened now that Hess has definitely pleaded guilty to the charges brought upon her. Hess has been largely silent throughout the whole process, however, it was confirmed that she alluded to her funeral home scheme predicament as a “legal travesty.”
