Hess charged families up to $1,000 for cremations that never occurred, prosecutors said, and she also offered others a free cremation in exchange for a body donation. The empty Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors & Donor Services in Montrose, Colo., on Oct. 24, 2018. Heres how prosecutors said the scheme worked: From about 2010 to 2018 Ms. Hess was in charge of Donor Services, a nonprofit body broker service, and Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, which offered to arrange cremations, funerals and burials in the small western Colorado city of Montrose. The black-market sales went on from at least February 2004 through September 2005, prosecutors said. Friday, April 4, 2008. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Copyright 2023 WPVI-TV. of death on a death certificate signed by Gerard Garzone confirms GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court. A Colorado woman who operated a funeral home pleaded guilty to fraud this week after being accused of stealing and selling bodies and body parts, officials said. All he was supposed to do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in . Those body parts were sold to at least five processing companies and one major distributor. Hess had been scheduled to go on trial in three weeks along with her mother, Shirley Koch, who also previously pleaded not guilty. "One of the cutters said it was like the back of a butcher shop, Tweet. The extent of any medical complications that resulted from the transplants remains unknown, she said. Abraham said. The stolen bones . They took advantage of numerous victims who were at their lowest point given the recent loss of a loved one. The 244 bodies fetched about $1,000 each, the grand jury found, The stolen bones, skin and tissue which are nearly impossible to trace from donor to recipient because of forged documents were transplanted in unsuspecting medical patients worldwide, the grand jury in Philadelphia found. More than 200 Pennsylvanians got tissue that came directly from the Garzone funeral homes, according to the grand jury report. Two family members and one friend of deceased people whose body parts were sold without permission by Hess spoke at the hearing. Second plea in U.S. funeral home scheme to sell body parts. Others were "riddled with infections.". plea there last month. Several funeral home operators in New York have also pleaded The body-part industry has been booming, growing from 200,000 transplants in 1989 to 1,200,000 in 2003. Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. Associated Press. of Philadelphia, and Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, along with James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, provided the bodies to Michael Mastromarino and . Bill's Auto Parts owner, died Sunday. From 2010 through 2018, they would meet with people seeking cremation services either for themselves or their loved ones, according to the plea agreement. One of the "cutters" who removed body parts told the grand jury that he once saw a body in the alley, covered with a blue "Astroturf-like material," a sparrow perched on the head. While it is illegal to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant in the United States,the sale of cadavers and body parts for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. "One of the cutters said it was like the back of a butcher shop, it was so dirty," Abraham said. Few state laws provide any regulation, and almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts. A grand jury indictment charges that they were paid $1,000 per A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty to secretly dissecting corpses and selling body parts without consent from mourning relatives. An attorney for Koch, Thomas E. Goodreid, declined to comment. So far, authorities have Burial vault. The grand jury report said, though, that James Garzone is not the one in charge. "He Prosecutors FBI agents found that Hess forged dozens of body-donor consent forms. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison . and hepatitis when they had actually tested positive, according to the authorities. "He's obviously not in great spirits, but he's doing OK given the circumstances.". But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. Like Gore, Rathburn would also be convicted but in federal court of fraud for selling and transporting infected body parts. Many families received ashes from bins mixed with the remains of different cadavers, authorities said, and one client received concrete mix instead of a relative's ashes. MONTROSE, Colo. Two operators of a western Colorado funeral home were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after being accused of illegally selling the bodies or body parts of hundreds of . Get ready!!!! Mastromarino, 44, remains in New York custody after his guilty A Colorado funeral home operator was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for cutting up the bodies of 560 people and selling the parts without permission. In such circumstances, despite lacking any authorization, Koch and Hess recovered body parts from, or otherwise prepared entire bodies of hundreds of decedents for body broker services.. Frequently, they delivered cremated remains to families with the suggestion they were the remains of their relative when, in fact, they were not, according to the indictment. James E Fyfe Funeral Director. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. part is pursuing a civil suit, Abraham said. Add to Compare. Sell your breast milk for $1-$3 per ounce. A Colorado funeral home director accused of stealing and selling the body parts of hundreds of people has pleaded guilty to mail fraud. A stout, ruddy-faced James McCafferty Jr. - the third of the Philadelphia funeral-home operators who participated in the sickening national scam to illegally sell body parts - was sentenced yesterday to 3 1/2 to 10 years in state prison. The shipments went through the mail or on commercial air flights in violation of Department of Transportation regulations regarding the transportation of hazardous materials,the news release said. her fear. Those charges are pending, but seven New York funeral- home directors pleaded guilty last year to helping Mastromarino steal from bodies. The group also lowered the donors' ages and changed their dates of death to make it appear the body parts were more fresh, authorities said. But (Garzone) took my Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. While the mostly poor families thought their loved ones were I exceeded the scope of the consent and Im trying to make an effort to make it right, Ms. Hess said in United States District Court in Grand Junction, Colo., on Tuesday, according to The Daily Sentinel. patients worldwide. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. In some cases, the pair would ship bodies and body parts that tested positive for or belonged to people who had died from infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B and C and HIV after certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free, the news release said. In a cruel twist, the mother-and-daughter team also repeatedly lied to grieving families about the status of their loved one's bodies or flat out ignored their wishes, said the DOJ. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors & Donor Services building sits empty in Montrose, Colorado, in 2018. Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew. While the women sometimes received consent from families "to donate small tissue samples or tumors of their dead relatives," the New York Times reported that the pair supplied body parts for research even when families were never asked for their approval or rejected the request in advance. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced Tuesday at a hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado for dissecting 560 . To maximize profits, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families, struggling as they made arrangements in their relatives final days, according to court documents. See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for Mccafferty Funeral Home locations in Ambler, PA. . All Rights Reserved. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. "I've yet to be shown a single shred of evidence that he knew what was going on," lawyer George Vomvolakis said. innocent. Nine-year-old Lyric Jones and her mother, Teran Christian, stand outside the courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Tuesday. A former Colorado funeral home operator pleaded guilty this week to stealing and selling human remains and body parts that were intended for cremation, federal prosecutors said. The empty Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors & Donor Services in Montrose, Colorado. Flowers. Seven funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. A federal grand jury indicted Hess and Koch in 2020. The Garzone brothers voluntarily surrendered their funeral director licenses last year, and the state revoked McCafferty's in an unrelated case about a month ago, officials said. Hess had created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said. The Garzone brothers surrendered their state funeral licenses last year but continued to run their two homes, Abraham said. The hoax revelation was first carried by the Ma Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, Gerald Garzone, 47, and James McCafferty, 37, were arrested Thursday on thousands of counts, ranging from running a corrupt organization to forgery and theft of body parts. According to The New York Times, Hess now faces up to 20 years in jail for her body part scheme, which was run out of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose. According to a report from the DOJ at the time of the arrests, Hess and Koch's mail scheme included shipping "bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonging to people who had died from, infectious diseases, including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, after certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Hess then "sold those remains to victims purchasing the remains for scientific, medical, or educational purposes," the release added. Christian's grandfather was one of the victims at Sunset Mesa Funeral Home. One woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit, Abraham said. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. "They were motivated by greed.". After the Reuters 2018 investigation, Colorado's legislature strengthened the state's oversight. From 2017-2021 Matthews was a guest host for RUSH Limbaugh and had the honor of hosting the last show on Rush's EIB Network-including the final Open Line Friday. Mastromarino to plead guilty to just a few of the approximately Generally, a broker can sell a donated human body for about $3,000 to $5,000, though prices sometime . last year but continued to run their two homes in Philadelphia, "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. The three funeral-home directors - Louis Garzone, 65; his brother Gerald Garzone, 47; and James A. McCafferty Jr., 37 - were accused of plundering 244 cadavers between February 2004 and September 2005. $1,300. Bronson to resolve. Dozens of patients, including some from Philadelphia and New Jersey, said they contracted hepatitis C after getting a transplant. When asked to describe the crime in a United States District Court in Grand Junction, Tuesday, Hess said, "I exceeded the scope of the consent and I'm trying to make an effort to make it right," reported The Daily Sentinel. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department and a lawyer for Ms. Koch declined to comment on the plea agreement. A lawyer for Cruceta, who lives in Monroe, N.Y., said he believes his client is innocent. Many families received ashes mixed with the remains of different cadavers, prosecutors said. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Home would charge $1,000 or more for cremation services, but often failed to carry out the work, authorities said. One of the cadavers was that of Alistair Cooke, the host of Masterpiece Theater, who died in 2004 of cancer. parts, Peruto said. July 8, 2022 - The owner of a Colorado funeral home has pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud after the FBI uncovered an operation to sell body parts of deceased . The defendants typically made up names for the donors and forged family consent forms, the indictment said. or redistributed. Without knowledge or consent, the women disrespected the wishes of the grieving victims and degraded the bodies of their family members to sell them for profit, Carollo said. Michael Mastromarino, a businessman and former dentist, ran the scheme with help from a team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. The elaborate scheme also included forged paperwork and "misleading buyers about the results of medical tests" performed on the bodies, added the Times, citing court documents. Mastromarino then falsified paperwork to change the causes of death, the age of the deceased and their medical history, the grand jury said. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Experts estimate that a single body can be worth $100,000 in parts, and the industry as a whole has topped $1 billion in revenue per year. Get ready!!!! transplant recipients suing tissue banks over the often-diseased Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. plundering 1,077 bodies, including those from Philadelphia. Buy this on Ever Loved. In fact, the mother-daughter team had been illegally selling hundreds of corpses intended for cremation out of the family funeral home in Montrose, Colorado for almost a decade. They each pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and aiding and abetting. Written by Maya Davis. alleged underlings, three funeral home operators from North These two women preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness. (Reuters) -A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission. "One of the cutters said it was like the back of a butcher shop, it was so dirty," Abraham said. Megan Hess was . The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. then sold to the tissue banks for dental implants, knee and hip "He was victimized by the funeral directors. Did you encounter any technical issues? It was not immediately known if the three funeral directors had attorneys. On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Ms. Hess and her mother sometimes obtained consent from families to donate small tissue samples or tumors of their dead relative, according to an indictment in the case. This is the cost to purchase a burial vault from the funeral home. The defendants conduct was horrific and morbid and driven by greed, US Attorney Cole Finegan said. Instead of cremating the bodies, court records show, her body broker company harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, mostly for surgical training and other educational purposes. The group also lowered the donors' ages and changed their dates Seven A judge sentenced a Colorado funeral-home owner who carved up corpses and sold parts of them without families' permission to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, according to the Department of Justice. Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, along with James McCafferty, by the Garzones. family consent forms, the indictment said. The latest Gabs from KenMatthews (@KenMatthews). Much of the work took place at the Louis Garzone Funeral Home, at Somerset and Jasper Streets in Kensington, where bodies were left on gurneys in a dingy alley behind the building, the grand jury said. A former employee accused her of earning$40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased as part of the macabre scheme, according to court documents. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. The scheme included forging paperwork, such as signatures on authorization forms for donating body parts, and misleading buyers about the results of medical tests performed on the deceased, court documents said. The U.S. Attorney's Office for . You have permission to edit this article. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Church Truck Drapes; Funeral Supplies . to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM Mastromarino will also testify, if necessary, against his Joe Amon / Denver Post via Getty Images file. California residents do not sell my data request. The cause was bone and brain cancer, said his attorney, Mario Gallucci. When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. Prosecutors allege that the men took tissue samples from . Morgan Cemetery Megan Hess, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud, sold body parts without families consent in a business she operated with her mother, officials said. cutter arrived, authorities said. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. and provide for other medical needs, the 111-page indictment said. Mansion, Jen Shah's Assistant Stuart Smith Changes Plea to Guilty in Telemarketing Scheme Case, American Dentist Accused of Plotting Wife's Murder During Africa Hunting Trip. Sell your poop for up to $1,500 per month. In many instances, Koch and Hess neither discussed nor obtained authorization for donation of decedents bodies or body parts for body broker services, the news release said. came home in one piece from the war. Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for about $1,000 each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a grand jury charged Thursday. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Mastromarino, who ran a now-defunct company called Biomedical Tissue Services, is already facing charges in New York for allegedly plundering 1,077 bodies, including those from Philadelphia. Find the indictment, photos, past coverage and more at http://go.philly.com/bodyparts EndText, By Troy Graham and Dwight Ott, Inquirer Staff Writers. Authorities said Mastromarino's company took bones and tissue from 1,077 bodies at funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, making $3.8 million in illegal profits. Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors, Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. When prodded by the judge, Hess agreed with the prosecution that she defrauded her victims, though she declined to go into detail. Investigators found 112 cases in which the three men charged indigent clients for services - then billed welfare as well. This is the only funeral home my family has ever used. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a Megan Hess admitted to selling body parts without permission of the families of the deceased. According to NBC, Hess is scheduled to be sentenced in January. The operator of a Colorado funeral home who was accused of stealing body parts and selling them to medical and scientific buyers, making hundreds of thousands of dollars in what the authorities called an illegal body part scheme, pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors are calling for Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. PHILADELPHIA Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue and skin from the corpses to be used in transplants, a grand jury charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. Two morticians operating . The parts could have been transplanted into as many as 13,000 patients, the Food and Drug Administration estimated. The founder of that company, Michael Mastromarino, a dentist stripped of his license for drug offenses, and his partner, Lee Cruceta, also were charged yesterday. One client received a concrete mix instead of the remains of their loved one. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. vowed to push for concurrent sentences. Selling organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal in the United States. The family of actor Tom Sizemore is currently "deciding end of life matters" following an update from doctors, according to a statement receiv. company that shipped bones, skin and tendons to tissue processors. We are available 24 hours a day, everyday of the year for emergency death care. Still, the authorities said, families typically paid $1,000 or more for a cremation that often never occurred. "My job is to make sure he doesn't do additional time just FOR TRANSFERRING BODY ONLY. By The Associated Press. By John Shiffman. $ 124.95 . He has agreed to help locate records for the families and This story has been shared 102,319 times. An attorney for Gerald Garzone did not return a phone call seeking comment. Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, received 15 years for their involvement in the scheme to sell the human remains to body broker services, according to federal prosecutors.