A Colorado funeral home director convicted of stealing and selling hundreds of body parts has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced Tuesday at a hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado for dissecting corpses and selling the remains for research purposes without family consent out of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado.
Her mother Shirley Koch, 69, was also sentenced to 15 years in jail for helping to cut up the bodies, the Colorado Department of Justice said in a release Tuesday.
“The defendants’ conduct was horrific and morbid and driven by greed,” U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan said in the release, which stated the details of the duo’s plea agreements.
“They took advantage of numerous victims who were at their lowest point given the recent loss of a loved one. We hope these prison sentences will bring the victim’s family members some amount of peace as they move forward in the grieving process. We sincerely hope this punishment deters like-minded fraudsters in the future.”
“These two women preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness. But instead of offering guidance, these gree dy women betrayed the trust of hundreds of victims and mutilated their loved ones,” added FBI Denver Acting Special Agent in Charge Leonard Carollo.
“Without knowledge or consent, the women disrespected the wishes of the grieving victims and degraded the bodies of their family members to sell them for profit. These two criminals continued in their atrocities for years, showing no remorse or contrition even after they were exposed. Nothing can guarantee solace for the victims or repair the damage done, but perhaps this sentence can mark the end of a horrible chapter in their lives.”
The mother-and-daughter pair were first arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials, reported ABC News.
The outlet added that a grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never took place.
After their arrest, Hess and Koch both pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and aiding and abetting, according to the Colorado Department of Justice.
According to the plea agreements, the pair sold remains far beyond those authorized by the family, which was often limited to small tissue samples, tumors, or portions of skin.
They also shipped bodies and body parts from people carrying infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, while certifying to buyers that the remains were disease free.
“She was the business part of it,” Koch told an FBI agent after her arrest, reported The Denver Post. “I was really the labor part.”
Hess’ attorney added that cremated remains were regularly combined together in the funeral home because the pair found it “too hard’ to keep things separate,” added The Denver Post, citing a March court filing.
A victim restitution hearing is scheduled for March.
