Corpses sold illegally
US undertaker sentenced to 20 years in prison
Heads, limbs, spines: instead of cremating the dead, two American undertakers quickly sold body parts. The relatives of the deceased knew nothing about it. Now the perpetrators have been convicted.
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Bold and frightening: Instead of cremation the dead, US undertaker Megan H. simply sold body parts – together with her mother.
Tanya von Arxforeign editor
She called it the “most distressing case” of her career. At the verdict, the judge said: “This goes far beyond what is otherwise negotiated in the United States.” This is how the American newspaper “Denver Post” reports.
The story is actually quite scary. Relatives entrusted their deceased family members to two undertakers in the US state of Colorado. But instead of burning the corpses, the women dismembered them and sold the body parts: heads, limbs, spines. Now the two, Megan H.* (46) and Shirly K.* (69), have received long prison sentences: H. has to go to prison for 20 years and K. 15, as reported, among other things, by the British “BBC”.
560 corpses desecrated
The court found it proven that between 2010 and 2018 the women, who are mother and daughter, desecrated a total of 560 bodies and sold parts of them without permission. In some cases, they are said to have sold entire bodies.
Megan H. and Shirly K. also forged documents to sell body parts infected with HIV or hepatitis, according to the Denver Post. The human remains were mainly used for medical research purposes.
A thousand dollars per cremation
The women ran a funeral home in the small town of Montrose. There they charged thousands of dollars for cremations, which never took place, according to the indictment. In other cases, they are said to have offered the cremation free of charge if the relatives agreed to “donate” parts of the bodies.
The responsible FBI investigator Leonard Carollo practiced harsh criticism, according to a statement. “These greedy women cheated hundreds of victims and desecrated the bodies of their loved ones.”
The two women had confessed. The case was made public in 2018 by a Reuters report.
* Names known