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Megan Hess, 46, and her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch, were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively, by the owners of the Sunset Mesa funeral home from the US state of Colorado, according to the US Department of Justice.
According to the case file, from 2010 to 2018, women dismembered several hundred bodies and sold their parts without the consent of the relatives of the deceased. Hess, in addition to the funeral home, ran an organization called Donor Services, through which body parts were illegally sold for use in science and education. In particular, Hess and Koch sold heads, arms, and spines for use in science.
In total, they dismembered 560 corpses, sometimes without asking relatives if they agreed to the use of organs, sometimes even having received a direct refusal. The company charged clients up to $1,000 for cremations it did not perform, and more than 200 families received the ashes of their loved ones mixed with the remains of others.
At the same time, the Ministry of Justice clarifies that the defendants deceived not only the relatives of the deceased, but also the buyers – for example, they hid from them that certain organs belonged to people with HIV or hepatitis B and C.
Both women pleaded guilty to fraud. At the same time, Hess refused to speak in court, and her mother repented and said that she was ready to take responsibility for her actions.
Source: Rosbalt
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