Colorado Funeral Home Owner Admits Dismembering Corpses, Selling Body Parts Without Consent From Mourning Relatives

A Colorado funeral home owner has admitted to selling human body parts without consent from mourning relatives.

According to Crime Online, Megan Hess, 45, pleaded guilty to mail fraud for illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes. The Daily Sentinel reported that Hess pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud Tuesday in a Grand Junction court.

As a result of the plea, all other charges against her, which include five more counts of mail fraud and three counts of transporting hazardous material, will be dismissed.

Hess on Tuesday admitted in federal court to defrauding at least 12 families who had paid to have their deceased loved ones cremated. But instead of cremating the corpses, court records said she removed the heads, arms, spines, and legs and sold them.

When asked to describe how exactly she committed the crime to which she pleaded guilty, Hess noted that she "exceeded the scope of the consent." The Colorado funeral home owner added that her plea was an effort "to make it right."

"I'm taking responsibility. I'm here to accept the plea. The families believe I went beyond the scope of the consent forms," Hess noted.

During the hearing, some family members said Hess was "hedging" on her admission of her guilt. However, they urged the court to accept it so everyone could move on from what happened.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Chaffin said Hess' statements and the remorse she showed would be taken into consideration during sentencing, which is tentatively scheduled in January.

A pre-sentencing investigation will recommend how much time the Colorado funeral home owner will spend inside the prison. Estimations from the prosecution revealed that Hess should serve between 151 months to 188 months in prison.

On the other hand, the defense's calculation showed that Hess should serve between 21 and 27 months. Judge Gordon Gallagher then said at least one of these sentencing calculations will "inherently" going to be incorrect. Mail fraud reportedly carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.

Another Charged in Colorado Funeral Home Selling Body Parts Scheme

Megan Hess' mom, Shirley Koch, was also accused of illegally shipping body parts around the world. The Denver Post reported that Koch had already reached a plea agreement with federal authorities last month to avoid trial. She also pleaded to one count of mail fraud.

Prosecutors previously said in a letter that Koch would not request a prison sentence lower than five years, and the government will not seek a stint longer than 6 1/2 years. However, a judge still has the final say.

Hess and Koch were indicted in March 2020 on six counts of mail fraud and three counts of transporting hazardous material. Federal authorities agreed to drop the remaining charges for the pair in exchange for the plea agreement.

Colorado Funeral Home Owners Secretly Dissecting Corpses and Selling Body Parts

According to court documents, Hess and Koch ran the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose as a nonprofit and sold hundreds of bodies between 2010 and 2018, even when a family wanted cremation.

They reportedly sell the entire body or body parts to companies around the globe for a significant profit. Some buyers allegedly used the bodies for surgical training and other educational purposes.

Hess and Koch charged their customers $1,000 or more for cremations that never occurred. To maximize profits, court documents noted that Hess targeted poor families struggling to make arrangements in their loved one's final days.

The Colorado funeral home owner also offered free cremations in exchange for a body donation. However, prosecutors noted that many families received ashes that belonged to someone else or mixed with the remains of different cadavers.

Authorities said some of these corpses or body parts belonged to individuals who had died from infectious diseases, including HIV.

Authorities raided the Colorado funeral home in 2018. At the time, Koch claimed that Hess was the "brains" behind the operation.

A former Sunset Mesa funeral home employee has earlier told Reuters that she saw Koch collect gold teeth from corpses and later used that money for a family vacation to Disneyland.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Colorado Funeral Home Operators Indicted in Alleged Body-Part Selling Scheme - From Denver 7 - The Denver Channel