A former owner of a funeral home in the US state of Colorado has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for defrauding relatives of the deceased. Megan Hess, 46, had 560 corpses dissected and sold the body parts without the consent of the next of kin. Her 69-year-old mother, who was responsible for dismembering the bodies, was sentenced to 15 years.
“This is the most emotionally draining case I’ve ever been through,” US District Judge Christine Arguello said at the hearing. “It is of concern to the court that the defendant refuses to take any responsibility for her conduct.”
Forbidden
The relatives described the horror they felt when they discovered what had happened to their loved ones. “Our dear mother, they chopped her up,” said Erin Smith, whose mother’s shoulders, knees, and feet had been sold. “We don’t even have a name for such a heinous crime.”
It is illegal in the United States to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplantation: they must be donated. But the sale of body parts – as the undertaker and her mother did – for use in scientific research or education is not regulated by federal law.
Companies and institutes also knew nothing
The defendants nevertheless committed crimes when they defrauded relatives of the deceased by lying about cremations and by dissecting and selling bodies without permission, the judge concluded. For example, the funeral home charged next of kin up to $1,000 for cremations that never took place. About 200 families received ashes from other cadavers.
The companies and institutions that bought the arms, legs, heads and torsos from the funeral home were unaware that they had been obtained fraudulently, court records said.
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