Guilty of trafficking in human parts, a mother and her daughter who ran a funeral home in the United States received a very heavy prison sentence. Back on this most macabre story.
The most sordid company in the United States. After a long trial, a mother and her daughter were sentenced to almost twenty years in prison after being accused of trafficking human body parts. Megan Hess, 46, operated a funeral home in Montrose, Colorado. She worked there with her 69-year-old mother, Shirley Koch. But this funeral home was actually not one. After the mother of the family cut the dead into small pieces, her daughter fraudulently sold them to… very strange buyers. According to the Reuters news agency, the two women dissected 560 corpses between 2010 and 2018.
You should know that in the United States, it is possible to sell human body parts to laboratories for research purposes. But you have to have a very specific permit, which was obviously not in the possession of the two women. The latter lied to the families of the deceased about cremations that did not take place before selling human body parts with false official documents. The universities, hospitals or other companies that bought the arms, legs, heads or torsos offered by the two women did not know that they had been obtained fraudulently, according to justice.
“This is the hardest case I have ever known”
During the trial, which was held in June 2022, 26 witnesses were heard: “Our sweet mother, they dismembered her. We don’t even have a name for such a heinous crime”, “I will never be able to recover from all that they have done”said two of them. “This is the most emotionally draining case I have ever experienced”commented Judge Christine M. Arguello. Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the heaviest possible sentence for her actions. His mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison with immediate incarceration.