Deceived relatives – urns filled with concrete mix • The police testify to a “terrible” stench
A married couple who ran a funeral home in Colorado in the United States pleaded guilty on Friday to abuse of corpses, write ABC News.
Nearly 200 bodies in various degrees of decay were discovered in the company’s premises after neighbors raised the alarm about the stench surrounding the funeral home in October 2023.
– Without going into too much detail, the atmosphere in the funeral home where the bodies were stored was terrible, says Allen Cooper of the Colorado police, at a press conference.
It was after complaints from area residents about a strong stench surrounding the local funeral home that police in Fremont County, Colorado discovered nearly 200 rotting corpses on the premises.
Some of the bodies are believed to have been there since 2019, writes ABC News. The officers who made the discovery have described both the sight and the air in the premises as “terrible”.
The husband and wife ran the funeral home, which was said to specialize in environmentally friendly burials and cremations.
Filled urns with concrete powder
At the trial on Friday, the couple admitted 191 counts of abuse of corpses, including two cases where the wrong bodies were buried.
They have also, in a separate federal case, pleaded guilty to defrauding customers by charging for funeral and cremation services that were never performed. In some cases, they are said to have filled urns with dry concrete powder instead of cremated remains.
They allegedly defrauded their customers of over SEK 1.4 million over a four-year period.
In addition, they admitted to defrauding the US Small Business Administration of over almost nine million in financial support during the corona pandemic.
The woman faces a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years, while the man faces 20 years. Both are also to be sentenced in the federal case, where they face up to 20 more years in prison. The verdicts are expected to come in 2025.
“Emotional struggle for the families”
The prosecutor described the case as emotionally draining for the many affected families of the nearly 200 bodies.
– This case has been an enormous emotional struggle for the families affected. Their trust has been broken, and it is something they will probably never recover from, he says in a statement to the channel.