After multiple cases of malpractice were uncovered in Colorado’s funeral industry, the state House of Representatives passed a bill to allow inspections of funeral homes and crematories without getting an operator’s permission to enter the premises.

House Bill 1073 cleared the House Wednesday with 53 legislators voting in support, 10 voting in opposition and two excused. The bill will now be sent to the state Senate for consideration.

“It’s a simple change, but hopefully it will cut off these big crimes from occurring again,” said bill sponsor Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta. “I certainly never want to hear Colorado being mentioned in the headlines of international news for being the center of abuse of a corpse, illegal body sales, chopping up body parts and selling them around the world. That’s not the Colorado any of us want to live in.”

In 2020, the owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose were arrested for allegedly selling body parts, and sometimes full bodies, of deceased individuals whose families had brought them to the funeral home to be cremated. Investigators said, from 2010 to 2018, hundreds of unknowing families received ashes composed of concrete, kitty litter and the cremations of strangers.

The next year, two counties away, Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent was arrested after investigators said they found severely decomposed bodies in his funeral home – one which had been dead since 2013 and another, an infant, which was so decomposed it could not be identified. Kent was also accused of keeping unrefrigerated bodies and bags of unlabeled cremains in his funeral homes in Silverthorne, Leadville and Gypsum.

If enacted, the bill would give the Division of Professions and Occupations the power to inspect registered funeral establishments and crematories without getting an operator’s permission to enter the premises if a complaint has been made.

“This is a bill that was born directly out of tragic and horrific constituent stories,” said Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Eagle, the bill’s other sponsor. “With this bill, we can close that loophole, allow our state inspectors to go into funeral homes when there are complaints and make sure that these stories never happen to any more Colorado families.” 

Soper said complaints were made against the funeral homes in both incidents for years prior to the arrests. However, investigators were repeatedly turned away from entering the establishments. The requirement that inspectors get an operator’s permission to enter is not in place for other establishments, such as hair salons and restaurants.

The 10 opponents to the bill – all Republicans – argued that the bill is unnecessary because law enforcement can enter funeral homes if they get a warrant. The bill sponsors said complaints aren’t always criminal and receiving probable cause for the prior criminal acts required entry to the premises.

If enacted, the bill would go into effect in August.