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 Tuesday by a federal court . 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. By The Associated Press. Tweet. certificates to make the parts appear usable, the grand jury A reporter seeking comment at their businesses was told to leave. corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. Much of the tissue was taken from people who were unsuitable donors because their age or the condition of their bodies, or because they had infections such as hepatitis or HIV, according to a 103-page grand jury report. beauty. "He's obviously not in great spirits, but he's doing OK given the circumstances.". Low Cost Funeral Homes in Philadelphia, PA | McCafferty Funeral Home Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being The pair charged customers $1,000 or more for cremations that never occurred. otherwise healthy, prosecutors said. By John Shiffman. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. July 5, 2022. Megan Hess admitted to selling body parts without permission of the families of the deceased. 9 Body Parts You Can Legally Sell For Cash - Low Income Relief Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday in Philadelphia and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose Updated 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. Selling organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal in the United States. "Nobody knows the whole story," said Carmen Cologne, 47, who resides across the street. All three men were jailed yesterday. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. One client received a concrete mix instead of the remains of their loved one. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced Tuesday at a hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado for dissecting 560 . Despite surrendering their licenses, the two Garzone funeral homes have continued operating under the control of a third brother, James, who revived a dormant Pennsylvania funeral home director license. The grand jury report said, though, that James Garzone is not the one in charge. plea there last month. "I've yet to be shown a single shred of evidence that he knew 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. After the body parts were removed, the deceased were taken across the street to Liberty for cremation. 2023 Cable News Network. Get ready!!!! Second plea in U.S. funeral home scheme to sell body parts. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donor's body for free. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, "He In court documents, a former employee accused Hess of earning $40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased, an allegation first revealed in the 2018 Reuters report. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Funeral home operators sentenced after illegally selling body parts Five indicted for selling body parts . Investigators found 112 cases in which the three men charged indigent clients for services - then billed welfare as well. Instead of cremating the bodies, she harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, according to court records. Megan Hess was . 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. "He was victimized by the funeral directors. "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. Church Truck Drapes; Funeral Supplies . Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. 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 To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. Four Indicted in Case of Tissue Theft : NPR Add to Wishlist . As part of a plea agreement, eight other criminal charges against Ms. Hess were dropped. The most expensive prices were for an upper torso that included a head and arms ($4,000) and the cost of an entire body was $5,000, according to the price list. James A. McCafferty Funeral Home - Ever Loved He said the state was investigating whether Louis and Gerald Garzone were still running their businesses without a license. 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. Mortuary Stretchers | Cots | Gurneys by Mobi Medical 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 . together ran Garzone Funeral Home. Prosecution seeks 12-15 year prison sentence, Colorado funeral home harvested and sold body parts. The Garzone brothers surrendered their state funeral licenses last year but continued to run their two homes, Abraham said. was not immediately clear if they had attorneys. In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Hess then "sold those remains to victims purchasing the remains for scientific, medical, or educational purposes," the release added. Find the indictment, photos, past coverage and more at http://go.philly.com/bodyparts EndText, By Troy Graham and Dwight Ott, Inquirer Staff Writers. Of the 244 bodies here, he changed the names on all but 48. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. Megan Hess, operator of Donor Services, in Montrose, Colo., pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. About a month after the Reuters stories, the FBI raided the site and state regulators shuttered the funeral home and crematory. charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. A lawyer for Cruceta, who lives in Monroe, N.Y., said he believes his client is innocent. July 5, 2022 9:58pm. 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. He has agreed to help locate records for the families and Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH Then amdk realised the luggage is overflowing with blood. $1,700. $950?". charged. Those body parts were sold to at least five processing companies and one major distributor. In 2022 Ken Matthews was ranked #70 of the 100 most important Talk Radio Show Hosts in America by the radio industry's TALKERS magazine. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a release Tuesday, that Meghan Hess, 45, of Montrose, Colorado had pleaded guilty to running a complex fraud "devised and executed to steal the bodies or body parts of hundreds of victims," from 2010 to 2018. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Donate your sperm to earn up to $1,500/mo! A former Colorado funeral home operator has pleaded guilty to stealing and then selling hundreds of human bodies or body parts to people who were buying the remains for scientific, medical or . The company sold the parts to treat burns, replace broken bones and provide for other medical needs, the 111-page indictment said. A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred. Expand. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. It was not immediately known if the three funeral directors had attorneys. 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. Cremator Pleads Guilty After Selling Body Parts - WebMD Montrose funeral homes selling body parts prompt charges | 9news.com This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said Thursday. He and Assistant District Attorney Bruce Sagel expect You have permission to edit this article. The family of actor Tom Sizemore is currently "deciding end of life matters" following an update from doctors, according to a statement receiv. Ex-Colorado funeral home owner gets 20-year sentence for selling body parts U.S. funeral home owner who sold body parts pleads guilty to fraud One woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit, Abraham said. or redistributed. 7047 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19119. and hepatitis when they had actually tested positive, according to the authorities. Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, 66, were first arrested for "illegally selling body parts or entire bodies without the consent of the family of the deceased," by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2020. Hess had been scheduled to go on trial in three weeks along with her mother, Shirley Koch, who also previously pleaded not guilty. Philadelphia, Peruto said. Hess initially called the whole affair a "legal travesty." conspiracy, they said. One national law firm has clients who were patients at Temple, Hahnemann, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein Hospitals in Philadelphia, Holy Redeemer Hospital in Montgomery County, and Shore Memorial Hospital and AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. Famous Brooklyn Funeral Home Selling Body Parts 2022. Mastromarino has been fighting the New York charges. Christian's grandfather was one of the victims at Sunset Mesa Funeral Home. Two funeral home operators in Colorado were sentenced Wednesday for illegally selling bodies and body parts without the families consent, the US Attorneys Office said. came home in one piece from the war. "They couldn't and wouldn't permit the dead to go to their graves with a shred of dignity," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham. Some even had rigor mortis, the grand jury said. 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. Another cutter, Chris Aldorasi, 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. Michael Mastromarino, a businessman and former dentist, ran the scheme with help from a team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. Two funeral home operators in Colorado were sentenced Wednesday for illegally selling bodies and body parts without the families' consent, the US Attorney's Office said. "They were motivated by greed.". because there are bodies in Pennsylvania," Peruto said. Colorado funeral home operators sentenced | 9news.com Megan Hess, 45, admitted to a single count of mail fraud and aiding and abetting, the Department of Justice announced in a press release on Tuesday. Burial vault. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 Flowers. Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - WFTS Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Plea sought in stolen body parts case - 6abc Philadelphia with the body parts being transplanted in unsuspecting medical corpse to let Mastromarino's "cutters" hack up bodies, without "My job is to make sure he doesn't do additional time just 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 Thursday. Mastromarino's lead cutter, and faces a sentence of about 6 1/2 to "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. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. FBI agents found that Hess forged dozens of body-donor consent forms. In 2003, the grand jury noted, an employee at a tissue- processing company described Mastromarino as "one of the leading procurers in the country," who was providing "a phenomenal amount of stuff. On other occasions, their request was rejected, and sometimes, they never brought up the topic at all. Find 1 listings related to Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler on YP.com. Im taking responsibility.. Funeral Home Operator Jailed After Selling Body Parts of 500-Plus More than 200 Pennsylvanians got tissue that came directly from the Garzone funeral homes, according to the grand jury report. Funeral Home Operator Pleads Guilty in Illegal Body Part Scheme, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/05/us/colorado-funeral-home-owner-body-parts-guilty.html. The largest demand is for bone used in spinal surgery, but a growing sports-medicine business also has driven up demand for tendons, ligaments and cartilage. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. "There was no basis for us to take any action against James.". "He was victimized by the funeral directors. According to authorities, they made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling off bodies . The three Philadelphia suspects were taken into custody and it 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Deli worker killed in apparent robbery on Upper East Side, Lori Lightfoot lost for failing Chicago not because voters are racist/sexist, Investigators want to exhume body of Alex Murdaughs dead housekeeper, Accused pedophile mayor called Pete Buttigieg his buddy and mentor, paid to have their late loved ones cremated. Three funeral directors held in selling body parts The Reuters series uncovered the actions of Sunset Mesa and Donor Services. 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. Others were "riddled with infections.". While the mostly poor families thought their loved ones were But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. Second Plea in U.S. Funeral Home Scheme to Sell Body Parts Written by Maya Davis. 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. One Philadelphia woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit. "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. The black-market sales occurred from at least February 2004 through September 2005, prosecutors said. "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. Funeral Home Operator Pleads Guilty in 'Illegal Body Part Scheme' Inside the Horrifying Market for Dead Human Bodies - Business Insider The group also lowered the donors' ages and changed their dates Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. 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Two Colorado funeral home operators who sold body parts or bodies in a scheme a prosecutor called "horrific" were sentenced to prison Tuesday, officials said.. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, 69, was sentenced to 15 years, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a statement. Louis Garzone even ran this scheme, the grand jury said, in the case of five children killed in a 2005 fire in Tacony, a tragedy that drew an offer from the musician Stevie Wonder to pay for the funerals. Those potentially dangerous body parts were sold and transplanted into thousands of patients. 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. Like Gore, Rathburn would also be convicted but in federal court of fraud for selling and transporting infected body parts. Chopped into pieces, thrown into luggage; one of the accomplices chose to dump the luggage in little India. Dion Rassias, an attorney for the James A. McCafferty Funeral Home, at Frankford and Unruh Avenues in Mayfair, said James McCafferty Jr. was not a director at his mother's funeral home. "Despite receiving $1,959 per child from Stevie Wonder, Louis Garzone filed a welfare claim for $750 for each," the grand jury said. McCafferty, 38, received significantly less time compared to his co-conspirators - brothers . A second Garzone Funeral Home , at 4151 L St., also is charged. A burial vault is required for most cemeteries, but you may choose to purchase one online or elsewhere, if you'd wish. Few state laws provide any regulation, and almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts. The extent of any medical complications that resulted from the transplants remains unknown, she said. 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