How Megan Hess and Her mother, Shirley Koch Sold Body Parts

Megan Hess seemed to help the people in her town of Montrose, Colorado, for eight years as the owner of a local funeral home. But her clients didn't know that she was selling body parts of their loved ones, charging them for cremations that never happened, and giving them random sets of ashes instead of their loved ones' remains.

Now, Hess, who is 46, and her mother, Shirley Koch, who is 69, have both been found guilty of stealing from the dead's families. Hess was given a 20-year prison sentence, and Koch got 15 years.

The FBI's special agent in charge in Denver, Leonard Carollo, said in a statement that the BBC reported, "These two women took advantage of vulnerable victims who turned to them in times of grief and sadness." But instead of helping, these greedy women broke the trust of hundreds of people and dismembered their family members.

Reuters says that the mother and daughter ran their "macabre" plan from a building in Montrose called Sunset Mesa Funeral Home. The business doubled as a body parts entity called Donor Services. Megan Hess's funeral clients didn't know how much the two businesses were the same.

From 2010 to 2018, Hess and Koch stole from their clients for eight years. They charged their clients $1,000 or more for cremations that never happened. Instead, they gave them ashes that were a mix of ashes from other dead people. They also cut up the bodies of their loved ones so that they could sell body parts like heads and spines to companies that train doctors.

Also, they sold "disease-free" body parts that were infected with diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B and C, to buyers.

According to Reuters, the FBI started to be suspicious of Hess and Koch after a Reuters investigation about the sale of body parts in 2018. Former employees told the newspaper that Hess and Koch had done "unauthorized dismemberments of bodies." A few weeks after the article came out, the FBI raided their funeral home.

The true scale of Hess and Koch's plan was shown in court. Reuters says that they cut up about 560 bodies and sold their parts without getting permission from the families. Prosecutors said that Hess ripped off about 200 families by charging them for cremations that never occurred and then providing them ashes that were a mix of ashes from other bodies.

Shirley Koch shows up for her hearing about her sentence. Prosecutors said that her job was to "chop up" the bodies of people who died at Megan Hess' funeral home.

In Hess's trial, the judge said that her case was "emotionally draining" and scolded her for not showing any regret. Hess's lawyers, on the other hand, said that she was a "broken person" whose crimes were caused by a head injury she had almost thirty years ago.

No matter what made Hess sell body parts from her funeral home, her actions have hurt a lot of people who trusted her with their loved ones' bodies.

At Hess's trial, victim Nancy Overhoff said, "When Megan stole my mom's heart, she broke mine." Erin Smith, who was also affected said, "They dismembered our sweet mother. We don't even have a name for such a horrible crime"

Joy Christian, whose father Michael was cut up without her family's permission, told Colorado Public Radio, "Neither of them made me feel bad." "I'm a Christian, and I believe in forgiveness, so I was ready to do that in court. But I won't forget it, because it was a terrible, terrible shock for our whole family."

Ann Holland, the mother of Christian and the wife of Michael Holland, said that Michael was a "real special guy." She told Colorado Public Radio that she wasn't sure what she would do with the ashes Hess and Koch gave her, since they didn't belong to Michael at all.

"Maybe just throw them out in the woods," Holland suggested.