On Tuesday, the court imposed a 20-year sentence on Megan Hess of Montrose, Colorado who is 46 years old and owns a funeral home. She had surreptitiously carved up corpses and sold their body parts without authorization from the families involved while managing her business called Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in addition to Donor Services beginning in 2010 as part of her scheme.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Hess had no qualms with deceiving families. He would sell a cremation package for up to $1,000 and then dismember the deceased body in order to make more money by selling its parts off as scrap. Even worse, he was known for sending out ashes that were actually made from the mixed remains of several corpses instead of those belonging only to their deceased loved one. In some instances, Hess would even attempt to persuade grieving families into donating bodies before ultimately disposing of them despite said family’s refusal.

Not only did Hess falsify the medical condition of the cadavers, but he also blatantly disregarded Department of Transport regulations by sending dangerous materials via postal delivery or on commercial aircraft.

According to the Department of Justice, Hess deceptively passed off cremated remains that actually included parts from multiple bodies and even concrete mixes as ashes of deceased individuals. Moreover, he falsely assured family members that cadavers with conditions such as Hepatitis A, B, and HIV were healthy when shipping them out. The court determined Hess had fraudulently disposed of 560 people’s corpses in total – a heinous act for which he is now being held accountable.

Shirley Koch, the 69-year-old mother of Hess, pleaded guilty and was given a 15-year prison sentence for her part in their scheme. This mostly involved cutting up the bodies to be sold as organs and tissues even though selling them is illegal in America. Federal laws don’t regulate the sale of body parts meant for educational or research purposes; this enabled Hess to spend his resources on trading these components instead.

Unbeknownst to the organizations procuring these parts, they were being provided with counterfeit donor forms from a fraudulent source.

A Reuters investigation that spanned two years sparked the FBI to investigate Sunset Mesa and Donor Services, ultimately leading a courtroom full of aggrieved family members to testify against Hess’ heinous actions. “Our sweet mother, they dismembered her,” one family member, Erin Smith, said. “We don’t even have a name for a crime this heinous.”

Leonard Carollo, the FBI Denver Acting Special Agent in Charge, released a statement via the DOJ that declared two women as villains who had “preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness.” “Instead of offering guidance, these greedy women betrayed the trust of hundreds of victims and mutilated their loved ones,” he stated.