Colorado funeral home owner who sold body parts pleads guilty

A funeral home owner has pleaded guilty to a number of charges after illegally selling body parts and giving family members fake ashes.

Megan Hess, 45, ran the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, in the southwest part of the state. She and Shirley Koch, her mother, were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials.

Former location of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose Colorado, (Google/)

The duo offered to cremate bodies between 2010 and 2018 and often did not go through with the process.

They sold bodies or body parts to third-party researchers, without telling the family members. They also sold part and bodies of people who had or died from infectious disease despite telling buyers they were free of disease.

Hess faces up to 20 years for the mail fraud charge, with the others dropped as part of the plea. Prosecutors are recommending 12 to 15 years.

Koch is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on July 12.

With News Wire Services