A former owner of a Colorado funeral facility was given a 20-year federal prison sentence for cheating the relatives of the deceased by dissecting 560 bodies and selling body parts without their consent. In July 2022, 46-year-old Megan Hess admitted guilt to fraud. She ran Donor Services, a company that deals with body parts, and Sunset Mesa, a funeral home in Montrose, Colorado.
The 20-year term given to the accused was the maximum allowed under law. Her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, also pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Koch’s central role was chopping up the bodies, as per court records.
“Hess and Koch used their funeral home at times to essentially steal bodies and body parts using fraudulent and forged donor forms,” prosecutor Tim Neff said in a court filing.
“Hess and Koch’s conduct caused immense emotional pain for the families and next of kin.”
The federal case got impetus by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series about the sale of body parts in the United States, a dark, growing industry. Former workers told Reuters that Hess and Koch conducted unauthorised dismemberments of dead bodies, and a few weeks after a 2018 story was published, the FBI raided the operations.
Prosecutors stressed the “macabre nature” of Hess’ scheme and called it one of the most significant body parts cases in recent US history.
Hess’ lawyer said she has been unfairly stigmatised as a “witch,” a “monster” and a “ghoul,” when instead she is a “broken human being” whose actions can be attributed to a traumatic brain injury at the age of 18. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge.
(With inputs from agencies)
