Montrose Funeral Home Owner Charged With Conspiracy

A wide-ranging class action lawsuit was filed this week against the owner of a Montrose funeral home, Megan Hess, as well as sixty others including the Montrose County Coroner.

The suit alleges they all were involved in a conspiracy to sell body parts across the nation as well as internationally.

The scheme involved promising to cremate remains or provide a proper burial from the Sunset Mesa Funeral home but turned into selling whole bodies or body parts to those who have a market for them.

Families that asked for their loved ones to be cremated received ashes that, after testing, proved to be not human. The company Hess created to market those body parts, Donor Services, was also located in the funeral home.

The ones named in the suit include Hess, her parents Shirley and Alan Koch, Montrose County Coroner Thomas Canfield as well as scores of businesses, health care providers and individuals.

Families were contacted by the FBI to let them know their loved one's body parts had been sold.

The suit alleges predatory behavior on those who have lost loved ones and accuses them of trafficking illegally obtained bodies for a profit. The bodies were cut by Hess' mother, according to the suit and were stacked in refrigerators. Hess' father would then attempt to sell the parts.

Prices charged went from $150 for a foot up to $1200 for a torso with legs. Hess had bragged to friends she was pulling in upwards of $40,000 a month while a family trip to Disneyland was financed by selling gold teeth.

The investigation continues and no charges have been filed at the time of the writing of this article.