A burial vault is required for most cemeteries, but you may choose to purchase one online or elsewhere, if you'd wish. because there are bodies in Pennsylvania," Peruto said. was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. Megan Hess, Colorado funeral home owner accused of selling body parts 1748 W Erie Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19140. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Some even had rigor mortis, the grand jury said. Colorado funeral home owner, mother get prison in illegal sale of body GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison . Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. Prosecutors are calling for Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. what was going on," lawyer George Vomvolakis said. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life without parole in the fatal shootings of his wife, son. Funeral Home Operator Jailed After Selling Body Parts of 500-Plus Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services from the same building, entered the plea to the charge of fraud at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher in Grand Junction, Colorado. Get ready!!!! See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for Mccafferty Funeral Home locations in Ambler, PA. . Obituaries from the McCafferty-Sweeney Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In New York City, four men have been indicted for stealing body parts from a Brooklyn funeral home and selling them for transplant. To maximize profits, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families, struggling as they made arrangements in their relatives final days, according to court documents. Mastromarino owned Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey Instead of cremating the bodies, she harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, according to court records. ", Some of the parts taken in Philadelphia came from people who had died of cancer, sepsis, HIV and hepatitis, the grand jury said. Sunset Mesa funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison A lawyer for Cruceta, who lives in Monroe, N.Y., said he believes his client is innocent. The founder of that company, Michael Mastromarino, a dentist stripped of his license for drug offenses, and his partner, Lee Cruceta, also were charged yesterday. "Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors," Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a A lawyer for Much of the work took place at the Louis Garzone Funeral Home, at Somerset and Jasper Streets in Kensington, where bodies were left on gurneys in a dingy alley behind the building, the grand jury said. A stout, ruddy-faced James McCafferty Jr. - the third of the Philadelphia funeral-home operators who participated in the sickening national scam to illegally sell body parts - was sentenced yesterday to 3 1/2 to 10 years in state prison. McCafferty Funeral Home in Philadelphia , PA - YP.com Those potentially dangerous body parts were sold and transplanted into thousands of patients. together ran Garzone Funeral Home. Second Plea in U.S. Funeral Home Scheme to Sell Body Parts He has agreed to help locate records for the families and "For them, nothing was beyond the pale - not stealing flesh and bones from the dead or lying to the bereaved, not forging and lying on thousands of documents, not putting the public's health at risk," the report said. charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. The funeral-home directors and their partners, two men who bought the tissue for resale, then falsified paperwork to make the "donors" appear healthy, the report said. replacements and other procedures around the country. "I've yet to be shown a single shred of evidence that he knew what was going on," lawyer George Vomvolakis said. Koch's change-of-plea hearing is set for July 12. Tweet. Donate your eggs to earn up to $10,000! Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday in Philadelphia and will Colorado funeral home owner admits to selling body parts for cash Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler, PA with Reviews The black-market sales went on from at least February 2004 through September 2005, prosecutors said. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. Seven funeral directors in New York have pleaded guilty, including one whose funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. Hess, 45, and her mother, Shirley Koch, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose. by the Garzones. A grand jury indictment charges that they were paid $1,000 per While the mostly poor families thought their loved ones were Mastromarino often filled in phony information on death Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North In a cruel twist, the mother-and-daughter team also repeatedly lied to grieving families about the status of their loved one's bodies or flat out ignored their wishes, said the DOJ. Mastromarino claimed that none of the deceased died in a hospital, in order to explain why there were no medical records, according to the grand jury report. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Add to Compare. Did you encounter any technical issues? Seven "Hess and Koch also delivered remains to families with the representation that the remains were that of the deceased when, frequently, that was not the case," it added. These two women preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness. A mother and daughter who ran a Colorado funeral home have been arrested for selling body parts and even entire bodies without consent from grieving relatives, federal authorities said . of death to make it appear the body parts were more fresh, The company sold the parts to treat burns, replace broken bones Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. It was not immediately known if the three funeral directors had attorneys. Insurer Sues To Block Coverage For Stolen Body Parts - Law360 The woman, Megan Hess, 45, the principal figure in the scheme, was assisted by her mother, Shirley Koch, who is in her late 60s, prosecutors said. When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. Human Corpse Being Transported to Funeral Home Ejected from Van in Pileup on N.J. Freeway. The three men also jointly own Liberty Cremation. A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty to secretly dissecting corpses and selling body parts without consent from mourning relatives. at least 244 corpses. Market data provided by Factset. Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, along with James McCafferty, Ms. Koch has pleaded not guilty, but she has a change of plea hearing scheduled for July 12. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 years for selling "My husband was a World War II veteran of three years," said The garzone brothers each own a funeral home and mccafferty was the director at a funeral home owned by his mother, the report said. Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded over 200 families by handing over random ashes while selling body parts of deceased individuals entrusted to their funeral home. Legal Statement. The largest demand is for bone used in spinal surgery, but a growing sports-medicine business also has driven up demand for tendons, ligaments and cartilage. The Associated Press. mccafferty funeral home selling body parts - zihsun.com of Philadelphia, and Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, along with James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, provided the bodies to Michael Mastromarino and . In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. July 5 (Reuters) - A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge of defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting their family members' corpses and selling the body parts without permission, a practice exposed in a 2018 Reuters investigative report. The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the "They couldn't and wouldn't permit the dead to go to their graves with a shred of dignity," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham. Two funeral home operators in Colorado were sentenced Wednesday for illegally selling bodies and body parts without the families consent, the US Attorneys Office said. Keep reading with a digital access subscription. Mastromarino That term was cut short Sunday morning when Mastromarino, 49, died at a New York hospital. Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. 2. Mobi Medical Supply also offers quality mortuary stretchers and cots for the funeral home and removal services industry. The funeral Hundreds of patient lawsuits have been filed in federal court in New Jersey and state courts around the country. The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the donors had died of heart attacks or blunt-force trauma but were otherwise healthy, prosecutors said. Written by Maya Davis. During the hearing, the judge asked Hess to describe in her own words the crimes she committed. Mastromarino pleaded guilty to 14 counts that include enterprise She also offered free cremations in exchange for a body donation. 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Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, received 15 years for their involvement in the scheme to sell the human remains to body broker services, according to federal prosecutors. processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said Thursday. He's not a flight risk," Kaufman said shortly after visiting his client last night. As part of a plea agreement, eight other criminal charges against Ms. Hess were dropped. Louis Garzone's attorney, Howard Kaufman, said he had not seen the grand jury report and so could not comment on the charges. According to The New York Times, Hess now faces up to 20 years in jail for her body part scheme, which was run out of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose. or redistributed. To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court. But (Garzone) took my Hess then "sold those remains to victims purchasing the remains for scientific, medical, or educational purposes," the release added. On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. corpse to let Mastromarino's "cutters" hack up bodies, without Heres how prosecutors said the scheme worked: From about 2010 to 2018 Ms. Hess was in charge of Donor Services, a nonprofit body broker service, and Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, which offered to arrange cremations, funerals and burials in the small western Colorado city of Montrose. In 2003, the grand jury noted, an employee at a tissue- processing company described Mastromarino as "one of the leading procurers in the country," who was providing "a phenomenal amount of stuff. Mar 19, 2020 at 8:17 pm. Experts estimate that a single body can be worth $100,000 in parts, and the industry as a whole has topped $1 billion in revenue per year. A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred. "He's obviously not in great spirits, but he's doing OK given the circumstances.". Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. PHILADELPHIA Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue and skin from the corpses to be used in transplants, a grand jury charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, were arrested Thursday on thousands of counts, ranging from running a corrupt organization to forgery and theft of body parts. "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. As part of his Several funeral home operators in New York have also pleaded body, but the Philadelphia woman believes the missing age and cause Famous Brooklyn Funeral Home Selling Body Parts 2022. One Philadelphia woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit. Mastromarino has pleaded not guilty to the New York charges. In court documents, a former employee accused Hess of earning $40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased, an allegation first revealed in the 2018 Reuters report. with the body parts being transplanted in unsuspecting medical Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Selling organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal in the United States. FBI agents found that Hess forged dozens of body-donor consent forms. "One of the cutters said it was like the back of a butcher shop, it was so dirty," Abraham said. Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran the scheme with help from a MONTROSE, Colo. When funeral directors Megan Hess and Shirley Koch were sentenced after admitting to illegally selling body parts from the Sunset Mesa . In such circumstances, despite lacking any authorization, Koch and Hess recovered body parts from, or otherwise prepared entire bodies of hundreds of decedents for body broker services.. Funeral directors found guilty of selling body parts to plastic surgeon Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much July 5, 2022 9:58pm. In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. The elaborate scheme also included forged paperwork and "misleading buyers about the results of medical tests" performed on the bodies, added the Times, citing court documents. Sell your hair to earn up to $4,000! On his way to dispose the luggage, a amdk Samaritan saw the man struggling with the luggage and offered to help. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary. She has been out on bond since her arrest in 2020. Colorado Funeral Home Caught Selling Bodies Intended For Cremation
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