US Funeral Home Owner Cut Up 560 Dead Bodies, Sold Body Parts, Including Gold Teeth And Spines

The former owner of a funeral home and her mother were found guilty of dissecting bodies and selling body parts without getting permission from the people who had died.

Between 2010 and 2018, Megan Hess, then 46, and her mother, Shirley Koch, then 69, dissected 560 corpses in Colorado, USA.

According to the prosecution, Hess, while operating the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in the town of Montrose, charged families up to $1,000 (?834) for cremations that she did not perform.

They further claimed that while some of the cremated remains were used for dissection and sale, Hess provided partial cremations for free in exchange for body parts donations.

THE DENVER POST/GETTY

Hess, with the help of her mother, sold the stolen body parts to medical training businesses.

The prosecution has alleged that the whole corpses were sold.

Hess also extracted and sold the gold teeth of some of the deceased.

Even though the FBI caught Hess lying on donor consent forms, she sold body parts to the medical community.

In the United States, giving an organ for transplant is legal, but selling one is illegal.?Hess received a 20-year prison term, while Koch received 15 years for her crimes.

Donor Services, a different business she ran out of the same building, sold organs from people.

Relatives who had employed Hess for cremations later found out that the ashes they had gotten back were a mixture of ashes from many cremations.

The FBI Special Agent in Charge in Denver, Leonard Carollo, stated in a statement that the two women targeted those who were emotionally vulnerable during their "time of grief and sadness."

Reuters

"But instead of helping, these greedy women broke the trust of hundreds of people and cut up their family members," he said.

A Reuters investigation in 2018 led to a home invasion and subsequent court action.?

On Tuesday, the mother and daughter appeared in court to face their sentencing.

Montrose Daily Press

A victim statement delivered by Nancy Overhoff was quoted in the Denver Post as follows. "When Megan stole my mom's heart, she broke mine."

Another victim, Erin Smith, said: "We came today to hear the handcuffs click."

In her ruling, Judge Christine Arguello referred to the case as the "most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced on the bench" as she ordered the two women to be sent to prison immediately.

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