Funeral home body snatchers sold remains to medical firms

Megan Hess and mother Shirley Koch cashed in while giving grieving families fake ashes

- GAIL SHORTLAND

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.

Hess 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.