The owner of a funeral home in Colorado, in the United States, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling the remains of hundreds of bodies without the consent of the families. Megan Hess, 46, who admitted to the crime of fraud, handed out fake ashes to customers.
The woman managed the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in the town of Montrose. According to investigations, she sold parts of approximately 560 corpses for use in unregulated research. Hess’s mother, Shirley Koch, 69, admitted to being an accessory and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“They used the funeral home to steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent donation forms,” ​​prosecutor Tim Neff said in the lawsuit. “Hess and Koch’s conduct caused immense emotional pain to the families and close relatives of the victims.”
It is illegal to trade organs such as hearts and kidneys in the United States. But the sale of parts of the head, arms and spine for research or education purposes is not regulated — a practice that was admitted by the pair.
Hess and Koch committed the crimes of fraud and theft, as the families did not authorize the sale of the remains, prosecutors said. Investigations point out that they also sold parts with infectious diseases, which is also illegal. The companies, however, did not know that they had acquired materials obtained illegally, according to the authorities.
The crimes occurred from 2010 to 2018. Hess offered the service of cremating bodies at a cost of US$ 1,000 (R$ 5,445) and the agreement was that the remains would be returned to the families. During the trial, the woman’s lawyer said she was being unfairly called a “witch” and a “monster” and linked the crime to a traumatic brain injury she suffered when she was 18.
Prosecutors stressed the “grisly nature” of the scheme and described the case as one of the most iconic in recent US history. “This is the most emotionally draining case I’ve ever experienced in court,” said Judge Christine Arguello during a hearing held on Tuesday (3).
Representatives of 26 victims described their horror at discovering what had happened. “They dismembered our mother. We don’t even have a name for such a heinous crime,” said Erin Smith. “I’ll never be okay,” added Tina Shanon.
Prosecutors said more than 200 families were deceived by Hess and Koch
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