> Funeral home directors who sold body parts will receive new sentences
Funeral home directors who sold body parts will receive new sentences
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Two former Montrose funeral home directors who sold body parts illegally will get new sentences for their convictions, according to court documents obtained by 9NEWS Investigates.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled Tuesday that Megan Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, should be resentenced, saying the district court made an error in its loss calculations that incorrectly enhanced the women's sentences.
Instead of cremating the bodies of people's loved ones at Sunset Mesa Funeral Home, Hess and Koch were accused of harvesting body parts and selling them.
They both pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 2022 for "fraudulently obtaining, selling, and shipping dead bodies and body parts to medical research, plastination, and body-broker companies." The case involved hundreds of victims between 2010 and 2018.
Both women reached plea deals with the federal government. In early 2023, Hess was sentenced to 20 years and Koch to 15. However, court documents say the district court followed sentencing guidelines incorrectly. It applied sentence enhancers that raised Hess and Koch's sentences above the plea agreement to the maximum sentence a judge could impose.
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