Medical Justice provides free consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a free consultation – or use the tool shared below.

On the surface, “Colorado Funeral Home Owners Charged with Mail Fraud” seems uninteresting – until one considers the kind of “mail” defrauded.  

If you read the headline, you already know – human remains. Hard to believe? Read the indictment.   

But what does all this have to do with doctors? We’ll reveal that shortly. Let’s meet our cast.  

Megan Hess, the owner of the facility, pleaded guilty to the charges of mail fraud. Her mother, Shirley Koch, assisted in the maintenance of the scheme. Unlike her daughter, Koch pleaded not guilty. We’ll see how that strategy pans out. 

Hess operated a nonprofit known as the Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation. According to Hess, the nonprofit’s purpose was to “provide assistance to community members who have no resources for funeral/cremation services.” In May 2009, she created a Trade Name for the nonprofit: “Donor Services.”  

According to the indictment, “Donor Services’ primary source of income was harvesting and marketing for sale purportedly donated human remains, such as heads, torsos, arms, legs, or entire human bodies, to customers who used the remains for scientific, medical, or educational purposes (hereinafter referred to as “body broker services”).  

A niche business, but not unheard of – there’s a legitimate market for such materials. As you’ve probably guessed, it is at this point that Hess’s behavior takes a turn for the criminal.  

In many instances, HESS and KOCH neither discussed nor obtained authorization for donation of decedents’ bodies or body parts for body broker services. In other instances, the topic of donation was raised by HESS or KOCH, and specifically rejected by the families. In such circumstances, despite lacking any authorization whatsoever, HESS and KOCH harvested body parts from, or otherwise prepared entire bodies of, hundreds of decedents for body broker services.  

Nevertheless, the families were charged, and paid typically $1,000 or more, for a cremation that never occurred.   

These families would receive cremains replaced or supplemented by HESS or KOCH with the cremains from another person or persons. The families relied on the representation that the cremains they received were that of their loved ones in making final arrangements.  

The amount of money the scheme generated allowed Hess to offer the cheapest cremation services in her region. What did this mean? More bodies. Hess laid a mock paper trail to legitimize the work.  

In dozens of instances, records maintained by HESS and KOCH for Donor Services and SMFD contained “Donor Authorization” forms that had forged signatures indicating a donation was authorized when that had never occurred. In hundreds of other instances, the records maintained by HESS and KOCH contained no “Donor Authorization” form at all, yet the decedents’ remains were nevertheless sold through Donor Services.  

Legitimate businesses seeking these materials require the donating party to verify they did not harvest the remains of individuals suffering from infectious diseases – including HIV. In the event a “donor” tested positive for an infectious disease, do you think Hess disclosed this to the buyers? 

Nope.  

Many of the customers of Donor Services also required that the remains they received be free of particular infectious diseases, namely HIV and hepatitis. KOCH would frequently draw blood from decedents whose remains were to be sold and submit that blood for testing. In dozens of instances, HESS or KOCH received results indicating the remains tested positive for these diseases. Rather than inform Donor Services’ customers of this fact, HESS frequently sent these customers altered laboratory reports indicating the remains tested negative for infectious diseases.  

As if this wasn’t enough, Hess also ran afoul of the Department of Transportation.  

In order to fraudulently increase their profits, HESS and KOCH shipped, or caused to be shipped, human remains from decedents who tested positive for, or died from, infectious diseases through the mails and on commercial air flights in violation of Department of Transportation Regulations.  

On or about January 17-19, 2017, in the State and District of Colorado and elsewhere, the defendants, MEGAN HESS and SHIRLY KOCH, willfully caused to be delivered property containing Category B biological material as regulated by the Department of Transportation—namely a human head, spine, and legs from the remains of R.M., an individual known to have tested positive for Hepatitis C—to American Airlines Cargo, an air carrier, for transportation in air commerce and recklessly caused such property to be transported in air commerce in violation of regulations or requirements prescribed under Federal Regulations.  

In violation of these regulations, the shipment containing the head was not properly marked or labeled.  

The take-home point: Label your heads, people.   

The scheme earned Hess and her mother hundreds of thousands. Gruesome and elaborate. How’d they get caught? Our research delivered no clear answers. Perhaps investigators simply followed the smell.   

We hypothesize the family members of those serviced by the funeral home tipped the authorities, insisting something about the business seemed off. Recall another data point we mentioned earlier in the piece: The advertised low-cost “cremation services.” It’s possible other funeral homes in the region took notice of the rock-bottom price point and wondered how the funeral home could afford to offer such a cheap service.   

The funeral home’s “Donor Servies” label was not obscure. Industry professionals in concert with police could have connected the dots.   

But what does all this have to do with doctors? As you might have gleaned from the previous quotations, many of the materials harvested came from individuals who wished their bodies to be donated to science.   

Some families agreed to donation. Frequently these families believed, based on representations from HESS or KOCH, that only small samples, such as tumors or portions of skin, would be taken for testing or research. Other families believed, based on representations from HESS or KOCH, that donated remains would be used to treat living recipients. Still others only authorized donation of specific body parts, such as specific organs, but specifically denied donation for anything else.   

Frequently, in such circumstances, HESS and KOCH exceeded the authorization they obtained. Remains would be sold for purposes not contemplated by the families; and body parts beyond those which were authorized, if not entire bodies, would be sold. In each of these instances, the families would not have authorized donation had they been informed of what would actually be done with their loved one’s remains.  

Medical students and their mentors were to use these remains to develop their understanding of the human body and treat the sick – instead, the business owner parceled her charges and sold their remains overseas. Quite a misappropriation. Perhaps Victor Frankenstein was in the wrong line of work. 

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts. 

Medical Justice provides free consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a free consultation – or use the tool shared below.

Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Dr. Jeffrey Segal, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Medical Justice, is a board-certified neurosurgeon. Dr. Segal is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; the American College of Legal Medicine; and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is also a member of the North American Spine Society. In the process of conceiving, funding, developing, and growing Medical Justice, Dr. Segal has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice issues, counterclaims, and internet-based assaults on reputation.

Dr. Segal was a practicing neurosurgeon for approximately ten years, during which time he also played an active role as a participant on various state-sanctioned medical review panels designed to decrease the incidence of meritless medical malpractice cases.

Dr. Segal holds a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, where he also completed a neurosurgical residency. Dr. Segal served as a Spinal Surgery Fellow at The University of South Florida Medical School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the AOA Medical Honor Society. Dr. Segal received his B.A. from the University of Texas and graduated with a J.D. from Concord Law School with highest honors.

In 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on the discovery and development of first-of-class pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Segal is also a partner at Byrd Adatto, a national business and health care law firm. Byrd Adatto was selected as a Best Law Firm in the 2021 edition of the “Best Law Firms” list by U.S. News – Best Lawyers. With over 50 combined years of experience in serving doctors, dentists, and other providers, Byrd Adatto has a national pedigree to address most legal issues that arise in the business and practice of medicine.