Following two horrific incidents in which funeral home owners mishandled bodies and cremated remains, Colorado lawmakers on Wednesday sought to tighten the state’s lax regulations that have failed to prevent the horrific incidents. Ta.
At a hearing, a bipartisan House committee spoke about a bill that would bring Colorado’s regulations more in line with nearly every other state by requiring regular inspections of funeral homes, including after a funeral home’s registration expires. The submission was approved unanimously. It would also strengthen the enforcement powers of authorities overseeing the industry.
The legislative action comes less than a week after an arrest warrant was issued for a former funeral home owner in Denver. Authorities say the woman’s body was left in the back of a hearse for two years and the cremated remains of at least 30 people were stored there.
Woman’s body and up to 30 cremated bodies found after former funeral home manager arrested
The incident follows the discovery of nearly 200 decomposed bodies at another funeral home in Colorado last year. The owners have been charged with abuse of a corpse after allegedly sending fake remains to grieving families.
“The current legislative and regulatory framework is failing the people of Colorado,” Patty Salazar said during the hearing. Mr. Salazar is the executive director of the Department of Regulation Authority (DORA), which oversees funeral directors. She added, “There’s a general understanding that things have to change and Colorado needs to get better.”
Seen here is the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, where piles of human remains were discovered and body fluids several inches deep covered the floor, an FBI agent testified. (AP Photo/David Zarbowski, File)
The new bill is expected to be formally introduced in the coming weeks, along with a second proposal that would require stricter qualifications for funeral home owners.
Joe Walsh, president of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association, said the industry broadly supports both proposals.
“Our industry has been hit hard. There were four incidents going back to 2018 that were devastating,” Mr Walsh said. “We need to make sure we address this and we need to take every step to ensure it never happens again.”
Under current law, there are no regular inspections of funeral homes or qualification requirements for funeral home operators. As a result, there has been a series of terrible incidents in Colorado for the past 10 years. A funeral home owner on Colorado’s Western Slope was accused of illegally selling body parts and giving fake remains to families between 2010 and 2018.
In the case of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, where 190 decomposed corpses were discovered piled up, the alarm was raised in 2020, three years before the discovery.
But state lawmakers have stalled passing regulations common in other states. These include annual inspections and requirements for funeral home operators to pass an exam or obtain a degree in mortuary science. In 2022, a law was passed giving state regulators the power to conduct unannounced inspections of funeral homes, but the bill did not provide additional funding to conduct the inspections.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Sam Delp, head of DORA’s division that oversees funeral homes, said if these regulations had been passed sooner, “bodies could have been found sooner.”
