A macabre find Colorado authorities found 190 decomposing bodies in a building that housed a funeral home after an eviction of the business owner.

In this particular funeral home, mock cremations were taking place, as a result of which the bodies remained piled up inside the building and the relatives received ashes that did not belong to their loved ones.

Following the sad development, as reported by the Guardian, lawmakers decided to move immediately to change the laws governing funeral homes, which to date have been lax and allow for a host of offences, from selling body parts to fake ashes.

Colorado moves to change law after 190 bodies found decaying in funeral home https://t.co/XqPVKuXS8c

Shocked families of the dead, still can not believe that in the urns received from said funeral home, they did not contain the ashes of their loved ones.

Colorado’s first licensing requirements state that in order to become a funeral director, they must align with the licensing rules of other states. The bill also sets requirements for other jobs in the industry, including embalmers and cremators.

“Too many Colorado families have had to face the horrible and unacceptable reality that their loved ones’ remains have been mishandled, lost, sold,” said Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts.

Funeral directors to this day are not required to have graduated from high school. If the bill passes, the permit will require stricter criteria.

In February, a few months after 190 bodies were found in a bug-infested funeral home two hours south of Denver, another body was found in a separate case: that of Christina Rosales.

Rosales’ body was found in a hearse, covered in blankets, and was only discovered because the owner of the funeral home in suburban Denver was being evicted. Rosales had died at age 63 of Alzheimer’s, and her husband, George Rosales, had chosen the funeral home because they were friends with the operator.

When George Rosales learned that his late wife’s body had been left in a hearse’s garage and that he had been given someone else’s ashes, he tried to stay strong for their two young adult children.

Privately, he said Monday, his eyes watery: “I’ve cried many times for her.”

“After 18 months I thought I was done with it, but it started all over again,” he said after speaking at a press conference in support of the bill.

When the FBI told Shelia Canfield-Jones that her daughter’s remains had been found among nearly 200 at a Colorado facility, she sat with officials clutching the urn in disbelief. The mother refused to part with her daughter’s ashes for four years.

Canfield-Jones recalled that an official finally took the ashes from the urn and repeated, “She’s not your daughter.”

“He had to keep telling us over and over again,” she said in a teary-eyed interview. “It was horrible.”

The 190 bodies were discovered last year in a building in Penrose and the owners have been arrested and face hundreds of charges, including abuse of a corpse. A red flag had been raised by the local coroner as early as 2020, three years before the bodies were discovered.

Joe Walsh, president of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association, said the group is in favor of the legislation, though he cautioned against believing these rules could prevent all future accidents.

“Yes, we got the license, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to equate to perfection, unfortunately,” Walsh said. Still, he said, it’s an important step in showing Coloradans that they can trust the industry and deter as many bad actors as possible.

“The best way to do that is to improve and show that we adapt, adapt and overcome,” he said.