Director accused of selling body parts
Barb and Ron Abbott are some of the untold number of people in the Montrose area with a loved one whose remains may have been mishandled by Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors. Ron’s mother, Shirley, had made arrangements with the now-closed funeral home. Ron holds a photo of his mother and his father, Bob.
Megan Hess ran a body brokering business under the same roof as Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors. Though that wasn’t illegal at the time, she’s accused of not telling families she planned to harvest their loved one’s bodies, sometimes selling parts all over the world.
Shirley Abbott was 94 when she died in Montrose. Her death was so peaceful that her son Ron says the time they spent together in the hospital was the best week of his life. Four years later, he received a letter from the FBI about Sunset Mesa.
Barb Abbott wishes everyone could have as good a death as her mother-in-law. From her dining room table in Montrose, she described the 94-year-old’s week in the hospital like an intimate party. It was mostly Abbott, her husband, Ron, and his weakening mother, Shirley. “We just had the most wonderful time. We really did,” Abbott said. She thought Shirley did too, “because we kept her laughing for as long she was alert.”
Abbott and her husband grieved, but accepted it as the normal course of life. Four years later, in early 2018, rumors circulated through their small, Western Slope city about the funeral home that had handled Shirley’s remains. Then came the FBI raid.
Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio.
