"No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being Mastromarino has pleaded not guilty to the New York charges. The looted bodies in New York include that of "Masterpiece of death on a death certificate signed by Gerard Garzone confirms How about a deal on full embalmed spines $950?. So far, authorities have PHILADELPHIA (AP) - April 4, 2008 From 2017-2021 Matthews was a guest host for RUSH Limbaugh and had the honor of hosting the last show on Rush's EIB Network-including the final Open Line Friday. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much He did not appear at a pretrial hearing in McCafferty, 38, received significantly less time compared to his co-conspirators - brothers . Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. Mastromarino owned Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey Parts are supposed to be harvested within 15 hours of death, but some of those in Philadelphia sat unrefrigerated for up to 100 hours. The Reuters series uncovered the actions of Sunset Mesa and Donor Services. Sell your hair to earn up to $4,000! In 2003, the grand jury noted, an employee at a tissue- processing company described Mastromarino as "one of the leading procurers in the country," who was providing "a phenomenal amount of stuff. In 2022 Ken Matthews was ranked #70 of the 100 most important Talk Radio Show Hosts in America by the radio industry's TALKERS magazine. The cause was bone and brain cancer, said his attorney, Mario Gallucci. Three Philadelphia funeral-home directors were charged yesterday with turning their businesses into gruesome human chop shops that pilfered bones and tissue from the dead to fuel a booming, $1 billion transplant industry. Experts estimate that a single body can be worth $100,000 in parts, and the industry as a whole has topped $1 billion in revenue per year. Nine-year-old Lyric Jones and her mother, Teran Christian, stand outside the courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Tuesday. 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. On other occasions, their request was rejected, and sometimes, they never brought up the topic at all. FOR TRANSFERRING BODY ONLY. to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue 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. 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. This is a common price to purchase funeral flowers. Find 1 listings related to Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler on YP.com. 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. [1/2]Megan Hess, owner of Donor Services, is pictured during an interview in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., May 23, 2016 in this still image from video. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Home would charge $1,000 or more for cremation services, but often failed to carry out the work, authorities said. family consent forms, the indictment said. A Colorado funeral home director accused of stealing and selling the body parts of hundreds of people has pleaded guilty to mail fraud. Megan Hess was . unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District "It seems like this in this case . Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services from the same building, entered the plea to the charge of fraud at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher in Grand Junction, Colorado. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, In 2009, Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, launched a nonprofit donor services organization called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, a body-broker service operating out of the funeral home doing business that would sell body parts to third parties mostly for surgical training and other educational purposes. Heres how prosecutors said the scheme worked: From about 2010 to 2018 Ms. Hess was in charge of Donor Services, a nonprofit body broker service, and Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, which offered to arrange cremations, funerals and burials in the small western Colorado city of Montrose. We are available 24 hours a day, everyday of the year for emergency death care. Prosecutors are calling for Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. Funeral Home Operator Pleads Guilty in Illegal Body Part Scheme, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/05/us/colorado-funeral-home-owner-body-parts-guilty.html. In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. This is the cost to purchase a burial vault from the funeral home. 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 . "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. The highest prices . 2023 Cable News Network. A change of plea hearing for Koch is scheduled for July 12. By John Shiffman. Church Truck Drapes; Funeral Supplies . Those charges are pending, but seven New York funeral- home directors pleaded guilty last year to helping Mastromarino steal from bodies. $950?". Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion. On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. July 5, 2022 9:58pm. The parts - bones, skin, tendons and spines - were taken from the deceased without family permission, in unsanitary conditions that one witness likened to a "butcher shop.". "There was no basis for us to take any action against James.". See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose 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. of Philadelphia, and Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, along with James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, provided the bodies to Michael Mastromarino and . 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 . We hope these prison sentences will bring the victims family members some amount of peace as they move forward in the grieving process.. REUTERS/Mike Wood/File Photo. and hepatitis when they had actually tested positive, according to the authorities. conspiracy, they said. She could face up to 20 years in prison. But (Garzone) took my was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. She has been out on bond since her arrest in 2020. The garzone brothers each own a funeral home and mccafferty was the director at a funeral home owned by his mother, the report said. 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 . As with other commodities, prices for bodies and body parts fluctuate with market conditions. Megan Hess admitted to selling body parts without permission of the families of the deceased. A former employee accused her of earning$40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased as part of the macabre scheme, according to court documents. The three men also jointly own Liberty Cremation. Although taking care of these funerals is a tremendous honor, the owner of McCafferty Funeral Home's real passion is to help all people from different backgrounds get . Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of murder in the 2021 shootings of his wife and son. (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. Hess charged families up to $1,000 for cremations that never occurred, prosecutors said, and she also offered others a free cremation in exchange for a body donation. Many families received ashes mixed with the remains of different cadavers, prosecutors said. The Garzone brothers each own a funeral home and McCafferty was the director at a funeral home owned by his mother, the report said. A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred. One national law firm has clients who were patients at Temple, Hahnemann, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein Hospitals in Philadelphia, Holy Redeemer Hospital in Montgomery County, and Shore Memorial Hospital and AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. "Hess and Koch also delivered remains to families with the representation that the remains were that of the deceased when, frequently, that was not the case," it added. Bill's Auto Parts owner, died Sunday. A former Colorado funeral home operator pleaded guilty this week to stealing and selling human remains and body parts that were intended for cremation, federal prosecutors said. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The company sold the body parts to treat burns, replace broken bones and provide for other medical needs, the indictment said. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, 66, were first arrested for "illegally selling body parts or entire bodies without the consent of the family of the deceased," by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2020. In Kensington, neighbors defended Louis Garzone. Legal Statement. Market data provided by Factset. Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. DENVER - The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announced today that the operators of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, were sentenced to federal prison for illegally selling body parts or entire bodies without the consent of the family of the deceased. 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. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS. Published Dec 19, 2008. Obituaries from the McCafferty-Sweeney Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 7047 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19119. 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. In 2014, the FBI raided Gore's chop shop in Phoenix, and were . In court documents, a former employee accused Hess of earning $40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased, an allegation first revealed in the 2018 Reuters report. Koch's change-of-plea hearing is set for July 12. During the hearing, the judge asked Hess to describe in her own words the crimes she committed. About a month after the Reuters stories, the FBI raided the site and state regulators shuttered the funeral home and crematory. The dispute will likely be left for Common Pleas Judge Glenn The company sold the parts to treat burns, replace broken bones Two family members and one friend of deceased people whose body parts were sold without permission by Hess spoke at the hearing. Mastromarino has been fighting the New York charges. In such circumstances, despite lacking any authorization, Koch and Hess recovered body parts from, or otherwise prepared entire bodies of hundreds of decedents for body broker services.. Donate bone marrow for up to $3,000. Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. The district attorney also charged McCafferty and Louis and Gerald Garzone with defrauding a state welfare program that offers help to the poor for burial expenses. and provide for other medical needs, the 111-page indictment said. Families of the dead had no idea the bodies were being ransacked. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. last year but continued to run their two homes in Philadelphia, 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. The women ran Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado. patients worldwide. The black-market sales went on from at least February 2004 through September 2005, prosecutors said. Mastromarino pleaded guilty to 14 counts that include enterprise Former workers told Reuters about questionable practices at the facility, including the dismembering of bodies without the knowledge or consent of families. replacements and other procedures around the country. Mastromarino - and the sensational accusations against him - first drew national headlines last year when he and three employees were charged in Brooklyn, N.Y., in a 122-count indictment. her fear. Add to Compare. They each pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and aiding and abetting. Ms. Koch has pleaded not guilty, but she has a change of plea hearing scheduled for July 12. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Then amdk realised the luggage is overflowing with blood. To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. MONTROSE, Colo. Two operators of a western Colorado funeral home were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after being accused of illegally selling the bodies or body parts of hundreds of . Associated Press. The body-part industry has been booming, growing from 200,000 transplants in 1989 to 1,200,000 in 2003. 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. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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mccafferty funeral home selling body parts