In Colorado, a former owner of a funeral home and her mother were given prison terms for illegally selling body parts.
Between 2010 and 2018, 46-year old Megan Hess and 69-year old Shirly Koch dissected some 560 corpses and sold the pieces to medical training organizations who were unaware that they had been obtained fraudulently.
Prosecutors claimed that in other instances, entire bodies were sold. It is legal in the US to donate organs, but not sell them.
Shirly Koch received a 15-year prison term, while Megan Hess received a 20-year term.
Prosecutors claimed that Hess, who operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in the Montrose community, charged families up to $1,000 (£834) for cremations that never happened and, in some instances, offered them free cremations in exchange for body part donations.
She then sold body parts including arms, legs, and heads through Donor Services, her side business on the same premises, without permission and using falsified donor documents.
Several relatives who had used Hess for cremations later learned they had received back ashes mixed with the remains of other people.
“These two women preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness,” Leonard Carollo, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Denver, said in a statement.
“But instead of offering guidance, these greedy women betrayed the trust of hundreds of victims and mutilated their loved ones”, the FBI added.
Tuesday’s sentencing hearing was dominated by poignant victim testimonies.
According to Nancy Overhoff, “When Megan stole my mom’s heart, she broke mine”.
Erin Smith,another victim said: “We came today to hear the handcuffs click.”
Judge Christine Arguello ruled that the two women should be imprisoned right away, calling it “the most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced on the bench”.
Author-Roberta Appiah
