Leaking body bags, unrefrigerated remains: Colorado funeral homes under investigation
Two Colorado funeral homes are under criminal investigation after authorities found a unrefrigerated body and learned that at least one family had received a stillborn’s cremains mixed with portions of adult remains as well as metal fragments.
Lake County coroner Shannon Kent owns both the Bailey-Kent Funeral Home in Leadville — about 100 miles southeast of Denver — and the Kent Funeral Home Gypsum — about 133 miles west of the Mile High City, The Denver Post reported Friday.
Kent is already facing charges of perjury and official misconduct for sending wife Staci Kent, who is not authorized to act as a deputy coroner, to death scenes on at least three occasions, according to a September 2019 grand jury indictment.
Staci Kent arrived to one of those death scenes without a body bag, which spurred an argument with authorities, the indictment notes.
At the time of publication, no charges had been filed against the coroner, though Colorado has suspended the business licenses for both funeral homes.
The probe into the coroner’s funeral homes started back in February, after a client complained to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office about the handling of human remains.
Kent has not yet been arrested for the most recent incidents, which at the Leadville funeral home included authorities' discovery of an “abandoned” stillborn, according to the Oct. 13 summary suspension issued by Colorado’s Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration.
Earlier this month, authorities from both Lake and Eagle counties “encountered a strong odor of decomposition” when they searched the Leadville funeral home, reads
There, authorities also found dried bodily fluid on surgical equipment, the metal preparation table, and the floor. A body bag was found to be leaking bodily fluids along with a container of animal remains which was also leaking fluids.
Authorities also uncovered multiple refrigerated bodies which were wrapped in sheets or blankets but did not have any tags or paperwork identifying them.
Kent operates six funeral homes in the state’s high country, which also include Buena Vista, Fairplay, Idaho Springs, and Silverthorne.
In mid-March, Kent received a “letter of admonition" from the Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration after unembalmed, unrefrigerated remains were found in the Gypsum funeral home over 24 hours after the person had died.
