Ex-funeral home directors sold body parts and gave grieving families fake ashes
Bereaved families always felt their loved ones were in good hands at the Sunset Mesa funeral home, run by a mother and daughter team.
Megan Hess owned the business and her efficient mum, Shirley Koch, was involved in the embalming and cremation process.
Together, they reassured the grieving in their times of need and promised to give the dead a dignified send-off. Families left carrying urns containing what they trusted were the ashes of their loved ones – but the doors of the funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, concealed a shocking secret.
Unusually, Hess also ran a service that let families donate body parts for medical science and research in exchange for cash.
Relatives could negotiate a discount on expensive funeral costs by donating anything from skin samples and tumours to limbs and even entire bodies. With an average cremation at Sunset Mesa costing around $1,000, it helped ease the financial burden at a difficult time – sometimes, Hess even offered to do the cremation for free.
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The twisted pair gave families fake ashesHess would offer the option when planning arrangements. Some families agreed on certain body parts being donated while others declined altogether. The remaining body would be cremated as usual and the ashes were given to the families.
Hess and Koch knew the importance of memories – they once splashed out on an expensive trip to Disneyland for their entire family so they could spend quality time together.
Then, in 2018, the news agency Reuters published a two-year investigation into the sale of body parts in the US. The largely unregulated industry had sparked concerns – and during its research, Reuters spoke to former employees at Sunset Mesa, who alleged that unauthorised dismemberments were taking place.
One even claimed the family’s big Disneyland trip had been funded by cash made from selling gold teeth, fillings and crowns extracted from corpses. It was estimated the amount totalled $40,000.
Reuters pointed out that no other funeral home also ran a body broker business, questioning the ethics of such a combination. A few weeks later, the FBI started an investigation at the funeral home, interviewing employees and the family.
Danielle McCarthy learnt husband David’s body parts were sold (Danielle McCarthy learnt husband David’s body parts were sold)While it is legal in most states to sell items recovered from cadavers, such as the gold dental pieces, it is morally questionable to do it without consent. Questions started to be asked about what else was being taken.
The FBI soon discovered that Hess had made a lot of money by selling body parts to research firms as far away as Saudi Arabia. Those medical outfits believed consent had been given – but Hess had been forging the donor forms.
Sometimes, a family would agree to a small donation, such as skin, but Koch harvested more parts without consent. When the body was ashes, there was no way of knowing. Other times, families didn’t want anything removing, but Hess and Koch would do it anyway.
They would sell arms, spines, torsos, heads and – in some cases – the entire body.
Sometimes, Hess charged $1,000 for cremations that never happened. They had handed over ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers – sometimes even concrete dust. An estimated 560 bodies had been dissected illegally, without consent. Hess did the deals, while Koch did the work.
‘Macabre’ plot
The pair were arrested in 2020 and when the news spread, the families that had used their business were distraught. While the selling
of body parts was not illegal, Hess and Koch were charged with mail fraud and illegal transportation of hazardous materials.
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They had broken the law by lying about the service they were providing. They had also shipped body parts that tested positive for infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C – despite telling buyers the remains were disease-free.
In 2022, Koch, 69, admitted fraud. She had been the one cutting up bodies for sale and said her daughter did the paperwork. “She was the business part of it,” she told the FBI. “I was really the labour part.” Just before she was about to go to trial Hess, 45, admitted mail fraud and aiding and abetting.
Prosecutors said the plot was “macabre” and one of the most significant cases involving the sale of human parts in recent US history. At a court hearing, Hess’s lawyer said she was motivated by a desire to advance medical research. But the prosecution dismissed that claim.
Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years in prison (Denver Post via Getty Images)
Her mother, Shirley Koch, was given a 15-year sentence (Denver Post via Getty Images)“Eight years of repeated conduct of this nature is all the court needs to know about her history and character,” they said.
Hess had profited by targeting poor and vulnerable, grief-stricken families. One heartless message she sent in 2014 to a body part
buyer read, “Meeting with hospice on the 4th... opening the floodgates of donors. They have four or five deaths a day. Get ready!!!!... How about a deal on full embalmed spines... $950?”
At the sentencing in January this year, Koch said, “I acknowledge my guilt and take responsibility for my actions. I’m very sorry for the harm I caused you and your families.” Hess declined to make a statement.
The court heard from 26 people who had been defrauded and spoke of their horror at learning the truth.
“Our sweet mother, they dismembered her,” said Erin Smith, revealing her mum’s shoulders, knees and feet had been sold. “We don’t even have a name for a crime this heinous.”
Others spoke of not knowing what to do with the fake ashes, while many described the revelations as being equivalent to a “second death”. Most felt the pain of not knowing where their loved ones were and the torture of thinking they were now medical waste
– or even on display somewhere.
Sentencing, the judge said, “This is the most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced on the bench.”
Koch got 15 years, Hess the maximum 20 years. A restitution hearing will be held to determine compensation for the many victims.
Stricter rules
Danielle McCarthy of Colorado Springs told of hoping to finally get closure after learning the body of her husband, David, had been dismembered and sold. She said, “When I can finally inter him in Fort Logan National Cemetery, that’s all I ever wanted, for myself and
for my sons and for him.”
Furious families pictured outside the court as the pair were sentencedThe scandal shone a light on the fact that almost anyone can dissect and sell body parts, triggering more regulations and stricter penalties in Colorado, plus a ban on running a funeral home and a body broker business under the same roof.
Hess and Koch committed a betrayal of trust so horrific the families who turned to them in their grief could never have imagined it. Hopefully, the lessons learnt from their sickening case mean it can never happen again.
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