Funeral Home Owner Jailed For Selling Body Parts

In Colorado, a woman who used to own a funeral home and her mother were both given jail time for selling body parts without permission.

Between 2010 and 2018, Megan Hess, 46, and Shirly Koch, 69, cut up about 560 dead bodies and sold parts to medical training companies that didn't know the parts had been stolen.

In some cases, prosecutors said, the whole bodies were sold. In the US, it is legal to give organs away, but not to sell them.

Hess got 20 years in prison, and Koch got 15 years.

Hess ran the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in the town of Montrose. Prosecutors say that he charged families up to $1,000 (£834) for cremations that never happened and sometimes gave them away for free in exchange for body parts.

She then sold body parts like arms, legs, and heads through Donor Services, a side business she ran on the same property. She did this without the donors' permission and with fake donor forms.

Several family members who used Hess for cremations found out later that the ashes they got back were mixed with those of other people.

The FBI's special agent in charge in Denver, Leonard Carollo, said in a statement, "These two women took advantage of vulnerable victims who turned to them in times of grief and sadness."

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

A Reuters investigation started the case, which led to an FBI raid on the home in 2018.

Tuesday's sentencing hearing was dominated by emotional statements from victims.

According to the Denver Post, Nancy Overhoff said, "When Megan stole my mom's heart, she broke mine." "We came today to hear the handcuffs click," Erin Smith said.

Judge Christine Arguello said it was "the most emotionally draining case I have ever seen on the bench" and sent the two women to prison right away.