Colorado funeral home owners resentenced to federal prison for selling body parts without families' permission

Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post on Apr 22, 2025

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DENVER — Megan Hess and Shirley Koch, the Colorado mother-daughter tandem who orchestrated a yearslong scheme to sell body parts without the consent of grieving families, will spend years in federal prison after a judge this week resentenced the pair for their role in the unprecedented body-snatching case that garnered international notoriety.

A federal judge in Grand Junction in January 2023 sentenced Hess to 20 years in prison and Koch to 15 years, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentences last year after ruling that the judge erred in several ways in calculating their punishment.

The same judge, Christine M. Arguello, on Monday stuck with her original sentences, giving Hess 20 years and Koch 15 years, following a lengthy resentencing hearing.

“Hess has shown no remorse and continues to justify her heinous conduct,” Arguello said, calling the scheme a “horrendous crime.”

Families who used Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose to cremate their loved ones believed their long odyssey to finally be over after the 2023 sentencing.

But the three-panel appeals court ruled Arguello erred in calculating monetary loss by refusing to offset the value of goods and services that the next of kin received at the time of the fraud. The court also erred by finding that body-part purchasers suffered financial loss through their dealings with Sunset Mesa, the 10th Circuit ruled.

Monday’s hearing likely marks the final chapter in a case that began when the FBI raided the funeral home in February 2018, following a Reuters investigation that found Sunset Mesa to be unlike any other business in the country. The gruesome details of the case — which authorities say included more than 500 victims — drew international attention and shined a light on the largely unregulated American body broker industry.

During an investigation dubbed “Operation Morbid Market,” federal agents ultimately tracked hundreds of bodies and body parts sold by Hess and Koch to places as far away as Saudi Arabia.

“The defendants’ conduct was horrific and morbid and driven by greed,” then-U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan said in a 2023 statement after the first sentencing. “They took advantage of numerous victims who were at their lowest point, given the recent loss of a loved one.”

Hess and Koch each pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of mail fraud. Investigators determined the pair stole the bodies or body parts of at least 222 victims, with another 338 “almost certainly stolen,” according to Hess’ plea agreement. The pair also shipped bodies and body parts that tested positive for infectious diseases, according to their plea agreements.

Koch told federal investigators that Hess was the brains behind the operation and she provided the labor.

The Sunset Mesa case, along with subsequent ghastly funeral home revelations, prompted Colorado lawmakers to close loopholes in state statutes surrounding the regulation of the industry.

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