After Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Chaffin made his sentencing recommendation, the lawyer for Hess, Dan Shaffer, urged a lighter sentence of about two years in prison. The group also lowered the donors' ages and changed their dates of death to make it appear the body parts were more fresh, authorities said. replacements and other procedures around the country. Mastromarino has been fighting the New York charges. An attorney for Koch, Thomas E. Goodreid, declined to comment. "They were motivated by greed.". July 8, 2022 - The owner of a Colorado funeral home has pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud after the FBI uncovered an operation to sell body parts of deceased . Updated Mobi Medical Supply also offers quality mortuary stretchers and cots for the funeral home and removal services industry. About a month after the Reuters stories, the FBI raided the site and state regulators shuttered the funeral home and crematory. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. A burial vault is required for most cemeteries, but you may choose to purchase one online or elsewhere, if you'd wish. A judge sentenced a Colorado funeral-home owner who carved up corpses and sold parts of them without families' permission to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, according to the Department of Justice. Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors, Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. "I love Louis.". forgery and theft of body parts. Another cutter, Chris Aldorasi, The grand jury found that the three men collected more than $183,000 from those families and $84,000 more from welfare. Megan Hess, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud, sold body parts without families consent in a business she operated with her mother, officials said. unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Add to Compare. Friday, April 4, 2008. Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran the scheme with help from a Selling body parts: Colorado's secret black market industry - KMGH Mastromarino will also testify, if necessary, against his He did not appear at a pretrial hearing in McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia; were arrested Thursday on 9 Body Parts You Can Legally Sell For Cash - Low Income Relief 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. Legal Statement. The body-part industry has been booming, growing from 200,000 transplants in 1989 to 1,200,000 in 2003. South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life without parole in the fatal shootings of his wife, son. 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 . One client received a concrete mix instead of the remains of their loved one. Indicted on similar counts were Brooklyn residents Mastromarino, MONTROSE, Colo. When funeral directors Megan Hess and Shirley Koch were sentenced after admitting to illegally selling body parts from the Sunset Mesa . Mastromarino often filled in phony information on death Funeral Home Operator Pleads Guilty in 'Illegal Body Part Scheme' Sell your poop for up to $1,500 per month. 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. FOR TRANSFERRING BODY ONLY. Im taking responsibility.. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Human Corpse Being Transported to Funeral Home Ejected from Van in Pileup on N.J. Freeway. They took advantage of numerous victims who were at their lowest point given the recent loss of a loved one. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. This is the cost to purchase a burial vault from the funeral home. Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday in Philadelphia and will We are available 24 hours a day, everyday of the year for emergency death care. A lawyer for Colorado Funeral Home Director Sentenced to 20 Years in Jail for Illegally Selling Body Parts. to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue charged. Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler, PA with Reviews The lucrative parts were McCafferty, 38, received significantly less time compared to his co-conspirators . Megan Hess was . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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 . Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. being cremated quickly, the bodies were often left unrefrigerated In other instances, the topic of donation was raised by Hess or Koch, and specifically rejected by the families. Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, Gerald Garzone, 47, and James McCafferty, 37, were arrested Thursday on thousands of counts, ranging from running a corrupt organization to forgery and theft of body parts. of death on a death certificate signed by Gerard Garzone confirms She could face up to 20 years in prison. (Reuters) -A former Colorado funeral home owner 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. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Koch's change-of-plea hearing is set for July 12. Funeral home operators sentenced after illegally selling body parts "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. He and Assistant District Attorney Bruce Sagel expect They took remains without permission from 244 cadavers, an indictment says. Frequently, they delivered cremated remains to families with the suggestion they were the remains of their relative when, in fact, they were not, according to the indictment. All he was supposed to do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said. Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for about $1,000 each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a grand jury charged Thursday. 2023 Cable News Network. any disturbing murder case in singapore? cutting of body parts? CNN has reached out to an attorney for Hess for comment. Ms. Hess altered lab reports so that they said that people had tested negative for diseases like H.I.V. beauty. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. or redistributed. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. The defendants conduct was horrific and morbid and driven by greed, US Attorney Cole Finegan said. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. CNNs Julie In and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report. "For one thing, cremations made it easier to deceive the next of kin.". For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Megan Hess admitted to selling body parts without permission of the families of the deceased. Families of the dead had no idea the bodies were being ransacked. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 McCafferty Funeral Home in Philadelphia , PA - YP.com This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Funeral directors found guilty of selling body parts to plastic surgeon The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. 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. Five indicted for selling body parts - The Mercury Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. The black-market sales occurred from at least February 2004 through September 2005, prosecutors said. of death to make it appear the body parts were more fresh, company that shipped bones, skin and tendons to tissue processors. He's not a flight risk," Kaufman said shortly after visiting his client last night. Hess and Koch also shipped bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonged to people who died from, infectious diseases including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, despite certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free, authorities said. Many families received ashes mixed with the remains of different cadavers, prosecutors said. According to authorities, they made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling off bodies . Those potentially dangerous body parts were sold and transplanted into thousands of patients. conspiracy, they said. Parts are supposed to be harvested within 15 hours of death, but some of those in Philadelphia sat unrefrigerated for up to 100 hours. Get ready!!!! Both Hess and Koch originally had pleaded not guilty to the charges. The three men were paid $1,000 for each body by Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said. for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a release Tuesday, that Meghan Hess, 45, of Montrose, Colorado had pleaded guilty to running a complex fraud "devised and executed to steal the bodies or body parts of hundreds of victims," from 2010 to 2018. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Deli worker killed in apparent robbery on Upper East Side, Lori Lightfoot lost for failing Chicago not because voters are racist/sexist, Investigators want to exhume body of Alex Murdaughs dead housekeeper, Accused pedophile mayor called Pete Buttigieg his buddy and mentor, paid to have their late loved ones cremated. The black-market sales occurred from at least February 2004 through 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 . "He was victimized by the funeral directors. FBI agents found that Hess forged dozens of body-donor consent forms. One Philadelphia woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit. Quick view $ 114.95 . PHILADELPHIA Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies Operators of Colorado funeral home charged with selling body parts then sold to the tissue banks for dental implants, knee and hip 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. McCafferty Funeral Home opened up in December of 1970 and has had the honor to handle many high profile funerals including longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. The looted bodies in New York include that of "Masterpiece Sunset Mesa funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison Ms. Hess and her mother sometimes obtained consent from families to donate small tissue samples or tumors of their dead relative, according to an indictment in the case. He said the state was investigating whether Louis and Gerald Garzone were still running their businesses without a license. appreciated. Colorado Funeral Boss Pleads Guilty to Selling Hundreds of Body Parts But (Garzone) took my Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Seven funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 years in Philadelphia . Those charges are pending, but seven New York funeral- home directors pleaded guilty last year to helping Mastromarino steal from bodies. "One of the cutters said it was like the back of a butcher shop, it was so dirty," Abraham said. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. The United States Attorney's Office for the District . Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donor's body for free. Second plea in U.S. funeral home scheme to sell body parts - MSN Written by Maya Davis. The parts could have been transplanted into as many as 13,000 patients, the Food and Drug Administration estimated. Hess had created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said. All rights reserved. Indicted on similar counts were Brooklyn residents Mastromarino, who lost his oral surgery license amid unrelated drug charges, and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew. All he was supposed to do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said Thursday. But the sale of cadavers and body parts for use in research or education, which is what Hess did, is not regulated by federal law. Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being The company sold the body parts to treat burns, replace broken bones and provide for other medical needs, the indictment said. But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, along with James McCafferty, 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. Prosecutors allege that the men took tissue samples from . Expand. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. The grand jury also charged Mastromarino and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew, with similar counts. her fear. funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late "My husband was a World War II veteran of three years," said Lawyers for Ms. Hess did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Tuesday. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. In fact, the mother-daughter team had been illegally selling hundreds of corpses intended for cremation out of the family funeral home in Montrose, Colorado for almost a decade. A Colorado-based funeral home director has been sentenced to 20 years in prison stemming from a litany of charges including fraud and illegally selling the body parts or bodies of approximately 500 individuals whose families did not consent to that practice.. Megan Hess, 46, who supervised the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, recently pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aiding . Of the 244 bodies here, he changed the names on all but 48. A second Garzone Funeral Home , at 4151 L St., also is charged. Plea sought in stolen body parts case - 6abc Philadelphia 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. charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion. The three funeral-home directors - Louis Garzone, 65; his brother Gerald Garzone, 47; and James A. McCafferty Jr., 37 - were accused of plundering 244 cadavers between February 2004 and September 2005. "They have four or five deaths a day. Four Indicted in Case of Tissue Theft : NPR The latest Gabs from KenMatthews (@KenMatthews). The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. Get ready!!!! 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. Mastromarino then falsified paperwork to change the causes of death, the age of the deceased and their medical history, the grand jury said. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just The U.S. Attorney's Office for . A federal grand jury indicted Hess and Koch in 2020. Bronson to resolve. Rent space on your skin for thousands of dollars. Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of murder in the 2021 shootings of his wife and son. They told the judge that while they were still emotionally reeling from the episode and wanted to learn more details about what occurred, they welcomed the news that Hess had decided to plead guilty. "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. was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. Former workers told Reuters about questionable practices at the facility, including the dismembering of bodies without the knowledge or consent of families. Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia; his Instead of cremating the bodies, court records show, her body broker company harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, mostly for surgical training and other educational purposes. Mortuary Stretchers | Cots | Gurneys by Mobi Medical Three Philadelphia-Area Funeral Directors Nabbed in Scheme Selling Body Funeral home owner who dismembered corpses, sold body parts sentenced Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia; his younger brother, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales; and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia; were arrested Thursday on thousands of . Michael Mastromarino, N.J. mastermind of body-parts theft ring, dies of "In many instances, Koch and Hess neither discussed nor obtained authorization for donation of decedents' bodies or body parts for body broker services," the news release said. Colorado funeral home operators sentenced | 9news.com Find the indictment, photos, past coverage and more at http://go.philly.com/bodyparts EndText, By Troy Graham and Dwight Ott, Inquirer Staff Writers. funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. 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. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Home would charge $1,000 or more for cremation services, but often failed to carry out the work, authorities said. The stolen bones . This is a common price to purchase funeral flowers. 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In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew. Louis Garzone even ran this scheme, the grand jury said, in the case of five children killed in a 2005 fire in Tacony, a tragedy that drew an offer from the musician Stevie Wonder to pay for the funerals. Mastromarino to plead guilty to just a few of the approximately All three men were jailed yesterday. Low Cost Funeral Homes in Philadelphia, PA | McCafferty Funeral Home "Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors," Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. G. Frank Page, Jr. Funeral Home. Montrose funeral homes selling body parts prompt charges | 9news.com