Now-Closed Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors Sold Bodies Illegally

Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors before the state forced it to close its doors
Credit: Sydney Warner/Montrose Daily Press

In October 2017, the FBI began an investigation into a Colorado funeral home owned by Megan Hess. Sparked by information obtained by Reuters, the bureau sent agents to interview former employees of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, who relayed grisly details about a company that was both a funeral home, a crematory and a “body broker” (a business that sells bodies and body parts). The business model was unique — the only one of its kind in the United States. 

That fact, along with stories told by former employees, led to a criminal investigation that put Sunset Mesa out of business and left dozens of Hess’ former clients heartbroken and enraged. 

The Body Trade

While ethically questionable, Sunset Mesa’s business model was not illegal in and of itself. In fact, buying and selling bodies and body parts is a booming industry both in the United States and abroad. What’s more, unlike organ and tissue donation, the industry operates in a regulatory void where almost anything goes. Donated bodies may be sold intact or dismembered and sold piecemeal, not unlike used car parts. 

It’s a lucrative business. An intact body can sell for $3,000 to $5,000 — sometimes more in periods of high demand. Body parts present an even larger return on investment, with torsos selling for $1,000, a pelvis and upper legs for $1,200, a head for $500 and knees for $250 each. 

In most states, funeral directors are also legally allowed to sell any items recovered from the bodies entrusted to their care. According to Reuters, Hess’ mother, Shirley Koch, would pull teeth from cadavers and extract any gold fillings she found. Kari Escher, the former Sunset Mesa employee who relayed the story, said Koch boasted of taking the whole family to Disneyland on the money she made from selling the gold. 

Megan Hess
Credit: scmp.com

Where Hess crossed the line, according to the FBI, was in failing to disclose the truth. She never told her clients that their loved one’s bodies might be sold. And in some cases, she asked the family to donate body parts in exchange for a discount on the price of cremation, then sold the entire body instead. The so-called “ashes” she returned to the families were a combination of crushed cement, junk metal, and human ashes that had been left at Sunset Mesa unclaimed. 

After the FBI blew the whistle, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies opened its own investigation and found that Sunset Mesa had failed to keep appropriate records for years. Hess had also disposed of bodies without the proper permits or consent. The agency forced her to surrender her business permit and to shut Sunset Mesa’s doors for good.

A Legacy of Heartache

Still, while Hess and her family can no longer profit from selling body parts, her actions have left dozens of former clients heartbroken and enraged.

Debbie Shum cared for her friend of 20 years before entrusting her body to Megan Hess. Now that friend’s body is gone.
Credit: Luna Anna Archey/High Country News

Debbie Shum, a former Marine and a lieutenant with the Hodgkiss Fire Department, cared for her friend of two decades, Loralee Johnson, while she was dying of bladder cancer. After Johnson died, hospice suggested she contact Sunset Mesa, which she did. Shirley Koch picked up her friend’s body, instructing Shum to come to the funeral home to make arrangements for Lora’s cremation the next day.  

When Shum arrived, Hess demanded $1,000 upfront. Shum couldn’t pay the whole thing, so the funeral director suggested she donate LoraLee’s bladder for research in exchange for a lower fee. Shum reluctantly agreed. 

Several weeks later, she received Loralee’s ashes, which she planned to mix with glitter and ground herbs and scatter at Orvis Hot Springs, one of her and Lora’s favorite spots. 

Hess used old scrap metal and anonymous ashes to dupe her customers
Credit: The Colorado Independent

Then she received a call from the FBI. “None of this happened the way you think it did,” the agent told her. Lora’s cremated remains were not in the bag. In fact, her body had been sold and shipped out of Sunset Mesa right after it arrived. Lora was already gone by the time Shum met Hess at Sunset Mesa the next day. 

Nor is Debbie Shum alone. Dozens of Hess’ former clients have since learned that the urns they believed held their loved ones are filled with junk metal and the ashes of people they never knew. What’s more, most of them will never learn where the bodies of their loved ones wound up. 

Changes to the Law

Since news of the Sunset Mesa scandal broke, Colorado lawmakers have stepped up to address the regulatory void that allowed it to occur. While Colorado is still the only state in the nation that doesn’t license funeral homes and crematory operators, in June 2018 the state legislature passed a law that makes it illegal for anyone who holds more than a 10 percent interest in a funeral home or crematory to be a body broker. It also requires any business that sells body parts that are not for transplantation to register with the state and maintain detailed records documenting all sales. 

This likely comes as little comfort to Hess’ victims, several of whom have filed civil suits. (One woman has already been awarded $500,000 by a judge.) A class-action lawsuit is also pending against a bevy of defendants, including Hess and Koch, the hospice that referred Shum to Sunset Mesa, and Montrose County Coroner Thomas Canfield, who the suit alleges directed bodies to Sunset Mesa for a cut of the profits.

The suits are still making their way through the courts.