Megan Hess (45), owner of the funeral home Sunset Mesa in Colorado, USA, has on Tuesday felt guilty of amputating and selling body parts from dead people. They have done this without permission from relatives, writes Reuters, which revealed the practice in 2018. They have taken the money themselves. According to the Ministry of Justice, Hess stole the body parts of “hundreds of victims”, and then sold the remains for scientific and medical purposes. The incidents in the indictment happened between 2010 and 2018. – I have broken the limit for consent, and I try to do it right again, Hess said in court on Tuesday. The prosecution says Megan Hess has received help from her mother, Shirley Koch, who works in the same company. She denies criminal guilt, but has a so-called “change-of-plea” hearing on 12 July. These are the prices Hess should have taken for different body parts Torso: 1000 dollars (10,096 Norwegian kroner) Pelvis with thighs: 1200 dollars (12,115 Norwegian kroner) Head: 500 dollars (5050 Norwegian kroner) Knee: 250 dollars (2525 Norwegian kroner) Foot: 125 dollars (1262 Norwegian kroner) The prices are taken from a price list Megan Hess sent to a medical clinic in Arizona in 2016. Source: Reuters Got dry concrete instead of osker Mora and daughter are said to have asked the relatives if they wanted to donate body parts from it deceased for scientific purposes. They often offered a discounted price on the cremation if they chose to donate. Sometimes the relatives said no, other times they were not asked at all, the FBI investigation shows. The wishes were handed over to the family members, who thought that they had received back the remains of the deceased – something that did not always agree. In one case, the family received dry concrete instead of the relatives’ wishes, writes Reuters. According to the website of the funeral home, owner Megan Hess has a doctorate in funeral science. This degree does not exist, not even in the United States. Photo: RICK WILKING / Reuters Hess also had to forge the relatives’ signatures in order to sell the bodies. The large income that came from the side business meant that Hess could offer the cheapest cremations in the region, which in turn led many to choose to send their deceased there. Still, people had to shell out up to $ 1,000 for a cremation that never took place. Gold teeth gave Disneyland a holiday In the USA, it is allowed to buy and sell body parts for use in research and education. In some states, such as Colorado, the funeral home is also allowed to sell items found on dead people. It includes, among other things, gold from the teeth. Kari Escher, a former employee Reuters has been in contact with, has especially reacted to the actions of Shirley Koch, Megan Hess’ mother. – She showed me the collection of gold teeth one day, Escher said. The cremation furnace is equally burned at a temperature of around 1000 degrees. Not all families got the right wishes back. Photo: Roy Hilmar Svendsen / news She claims that Koch regularly pulled teeth from corpses to get the gold out of the crowns or fillings. – She had sold another collection earlier, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold they collected. A flower decorator who worked for the company also noticed that Hess often bragged about how lucrative it was to sell body parts. One month will ignite the 40,000 dollars on it, Hess is said to have said. It is not known how Hess and Koch stand on these shoulders. Ordered by e-mail Reuters has not closed in finding another company in the US that houses both a funeral home, crematorium and so-called “body mediation”. All in the same building and under the same ownership. The trade association for funeral homes in the USA has also pointed out the conflict of interest in the company. – There is no ethics when one does it (to have both a funeral home and to sell body parts, journ. Note.). One looks at how to make money, says director Steve Palmer. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and liver. US authorities have a strict regulation when it comes to organ donation, but in practice anyone can amputate and sell body parts. In an interview from 2016, Hess describes the company as «a small family business». Then she told that she and her mother took care of about ten corpses a month, while her father ran the crematorium. She must have taken the orders for the body parts by e-mail. The Ministry of Justice states that the verdict against Hess will come at a later date.
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Gravferdsbyrå i USA admits that they sold body parts – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
