Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed two bills that overhaul the state’s oversight of the funeral home industry following a series of gruesome discoveries, including 190 bodies decomposing inside funeral homes, fake ashes being sent to families, and body parts being sold without a license.
The lawsuits have drawn attention to Colorado’s lax regulations on funeral homes — some of the loosest in the country — and upset hundreds of already grieving families.
Some families scattered ashes in ceremonies only to find out they were fake, while others had nightmares about what their loved ones would have looked like in their decomposed state.
Colorado lawmakers pass bill to crack down on funeral homes after piles of fake ashes and decomposing bodies make national news
“When grieving the loss of a loved one, the last thing a family should be concerned about is the reliability and professionalism of those entrusted with the care of their loved one,” Polis said in a statement.
The new law brings Colorado in line with most other states.
One would require regulators to regularly inspect funeral homes and give them stronger enforcement powers, while the other would introduce licensing for funeral directors and other workers in the industry, requiring those qualified to hold a degree, work experience and pass background checks and a national exam.
Previously, funeral home directors in Colorado were not required to graduate from high school, let alone earn a degree.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, front row, center, signs a bill that puts in place more comprehensive guidelines for funeral facilities during a ceremony Friday, May 24, 2024, outside the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zarbowski)
The funeral industry is generally in favor of the changes, but some worry the strict requirements for funeral home directors are unnecessary and will make it harder to find available applicants.
The signing of the bill comes after a challenging year for Colorado funeral homes.
In early October, neighbors noticed a foul odor coming from a building in the town of Penrose, about two hours south of Denver. Authorities soon discovered 190 decomposing bodies, including adults, infants and fetuses.
Some of the bodies were stacked on top of each other, the floor covered in putrefactive fluids and swarming with flies and maggots.
Nearly 20 of the bodies were from deaths in 2019, and roughly another 60 in 2020. As the bodies were identified, families who received the ashes learned they did not belong to their loved ones.
The mother of the man whose body was found at the Penrose facility said she will continue to lobby Colorado lawmakers to ensure the new law is strictly enforced.
“I’m so excited. I think this is a great first step,” said Christina Page, the mother of David Jackson Page, 20, a mentally ill man who was killed by police in 2019.
Page said the new law should lead to regulations requiring crematoriums to independently identify bodies and certify to the state that the bodies have been cremated.
Most states require regular inspections of funeral homes, but Colorado has no such regulations. The owners of the funeral home were arrested in November and collectively face hundreds of charges, including abuse of a corpse.
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Just a few months later, in February, a woman’s body was discovered in the back of a hearse that had been abandoned for more than a year at a suburban Denver funeral home, where at least 30 cremated remains had been hidden throughout the home.
