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Right now, Colorado does not regulate the people who work in the funeral service industry. A state lawmaker plans to change that.
DENVER — The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) completed a review of the state’s funeral industry, and it concluded the industry needs regulation.
DORA’s review found 20 cases of “public harm” from Colorado funeral service professionals. But two stories stand out the most.
The FBI said Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose stole and sold the bodies of at least 800 victims.
“This has been allowed to run rampant for so long,” Danielle McCarthy told 9NEWS.
McCarthy wonders how many more families have gone to cremate or bury their loved ones, only for the funeral home to do something else. That’s what happened to her.
“The funeral home I used to cremate my husband did not,” she said. “They dismembered and sold his body parts without me knowing.”
The FBI was not able to track down most of the bodies, but they found McCarthy’s late husband.
Last fall at Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, law enforcement recovered nearly 200 bodies that families thought had been cremated or buried.
“Sunset Mesa and Return To Nature are not anomalies. This is happening in this state because there is no regulation,” McCarthy said.
From November: After repeated atrocities, state asks lawmakers for permission to more closely regulate funeral homes
Right now, Colorado does not regulate the people who work in the funeral home industry. Nothing would stop the Return To Nature or Sunset Mesa owners from opening another funeral home.
“The recent events down in Penrose brought that to a head,” said Joe Walsh, President of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association.
“We’re in favor of licensure. We have nothing to hide. We don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Walsh said.
Every other state has regulations for the people who work in the industry.
The Colorado Funeral Directors Association asked DORA to review the funeral service professional industry. DORA’s review concluded lawmakers should make laws to regulate it.
“There’s a lot of bad actors here in Colorado and hopefully with licensure we’re able to weed out those bad actors,” Colorado Rep. Matt Soper (R) said.
He plans to propose legislation with Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat. Their proposal would require morticians, funeral directors and crematorium operators to get a license from the state.
Soper said there would be a path to getting a license through an apprenticeship, as well as an academic path with a degree in mortuary science. He also wants a requirement for people to pass an exam to demonstrate knowledge about the science and ethics. There would also be a continuing education requirement for people to keep their licenses.
Creating a new licensing requirement creates a question of what to do with people currently in the field.
“That’s our biggest concern. We have a great number of individuals in this industry that do a wonderful job, that are caring, professional, but have never gone to mortuary school,” Walsh said.
Soper wants to keep current professionals in the field.
“We want to keep them in the industry. We definitely do not want them retiring or quitting or moving on. We want to make it super easy for them to continue,” Soper said.
“That’s disappointing to hear,” McCarthy told 9NEWS.
She does not want all current professionals to just get a license, because of concerns about what other bad actors may be in the field.
“I don’t want to see anybody grandfathered in. I think they need to prove as a professional you know what you’re doing,” she said. “We don’t want to unduly penalize individuals who are already in the industry, yet at the same time how do we know that they’re acting in the best practices that the state’s wanting?”
Soper said the bill would essentially give current professionals the benefit of the doubt.
“If they continue to be unethical, they continue to violate law, they continue to show they do not understand the science of how to handle a deceased body, at that moment in time, we’re going to walk in as the state and we’re gonna take away their license and we’re gonna tell that individual you’re not allowed to practice in Colorado anymore,” he said.
Those details will go through the legislative process, but the three agree it is time for Colorado to regulate funeral service professionals.
“I’m hope full — and those are two distinct words, not ‘hopeful’ as one — but I am full of hope that something is done,” McCarthy said.
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