A former funeral home owner in Colorado, US, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission.
Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law.
The federal case was triggered by a 2016-2018 Reuters investigative series about the sale of body parts in the US, a virtually unregulated industry. Former workers told Reuters that Hess and Koch conducted unauthorised dismemberments of bodies, and a few weeks after a 2018 story was published, the FBI raided the business.
“It's concerning to the court that defendant Hess refuses to assume any responsibility for her conduct.”Hess's lawyer said she has been unfairly vilified as a “witch”, a “monster” and a “ghoul”, when instead she is a “broken human being” whose conduct can be attributed to a traumatic brain injury at age 18. In court on Tuesday, Hess declined to speak to the judge.
Tina Shanon, whose mother was dismembered against her will, told the court: “I've worn many masks to cover the pain. I'll never be OK.”
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