State inspectors in Colorado found decomposing bodies behind a hidden door in a funeral home operated by a county coroner, who told them he may have given fake ashes to relatives who had sought cremations, authorities disclosed Thursday.
The bodies were discovered in a room behind a door that was hidden by a cardboard display during an inspection of Davis Mortuary in Pueblo, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Denver, on Wednesday after Brian Cotter, an owner and the county coroner, asked them not to go inside the room, according to a document from state regulators. The inspectors had found a “strong odor of decomposition" after arriving at the mortuary, it says.
Cotter told inspectors that some of the bodies had been awaiting cremation for about 15 years, according to the document, which explains why the state suspended the mortuary’s registration that allows it to operate.
The discovery led the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to launch a criminal investigation into the funeral home at the request of local authorities. They plan to hold a press conference Thursday afternoon.
A woman who answered the phone at the mortuary said it had no comment and declined to make Cotter available for an interview.
Cotter did not immediately respond to a message left with the coroner’s office.
Cotter and his brother bought Davis Mortuary in 1989, according to the business’s website. It said the brothers brought with them an “old school” way of operating that they learned from their father, who owned and operated funeral homes in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.
For years, Colorado had some of the weakest rules for funeral homes in the nation, with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral home operators. That allowed numerous abuses, including a pending case involving nearly 200 decomposing bodies that were found being stored at room temperature in a building in Penrose, Colorado, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Pueblo.
A sentencing of one of the funeral home’s owners in that case on charges of corpse abuse is set for Friday.
Owners of another funeral home in Grand Junction, Colorado, were convicted of selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes.
In response to those and other cases, state lawmakers last year approved changes intended to tighten oversight, bringing Colorado in line with most other states. One requires regulators to routinely inspect funeral homes and give them more enforcement power. Another implements licensing for funeral directors and other workers in the industry. They would need to pass background checks and a national exam while possessing degrees and work experience.
Previously, funeral home directors in Colorado didn’t have to graduate from high school, let alone have a degree.
_____
Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
