My family was devastated to learn last week a beloved deceased member is among the nearly 200 bodies found improperly and grotesquely stored at the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose.

My niece was notified by federal authorities the remains of her mother, my sister, who died in 2020, were not cremated as directed by her family. The fate of her late husband, my brother-in-law, is undetermined. My niece and her two siblings are now being forced to relive the loss of their parents although this time it is because of the most uncivilized and irresponsible abuse imaginable.

The investigation into the owners of Return to Nature is not completed so no formal charges have yet been filed. But there is no other way to describe the people responsible for this, if they are charged and convicted, than despicable monsters who violated the sacred trust of families during the most challenging and emotional times in their lives.

Beyond the human tragedy of this scandal, a profession I proudly was a part of many years ago has been inevitably and unfairly tainted.

During the mid-1970s, I put myself through my first three years of college while working for a company of funeral homes in my native Arkansas Valley. I worked in Pueblo, La Junta, Las Animas and Lamar before graduating from what was then the University of Southern Colorado, now Colorado State University-Pueblo.

I loved my job and the people I worked for. I saw the dignity, professionalism and compassion of the funeral directors every day I went to work. They never would have tolerated any disrespectful or inappropriate behavior.

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Beyond their consistent, professional conduct, they were pillars of their communities. They belonged to the chamber of commerce and service clubs, led local charities, were omnipresent at school events with their kids and, most important, were trusted and admired by the families they served.

My bosses would ask me to join them for the occasional mid-morning meetings of town leaders at a downtown coffee shop where everything from local gossip to the great issues of the day were discussed. I certainly had never heard the term “focus group” at that time, but looking back I was learning what politics is all about.

Most of my bosses were traditional Main Street Republicans but George McCarthy in Pueblo was a true-blue, labor Democrat who seemed bemused about having a young Republican activist around. Most of the time when I was called into Mr. McCarthy’s office, it was to get instructions about projects for the day, but sometimes he just wanted to good-naturedly gig me about the latest revelation in the Watergate scandal. I was honored this prominent member of the community engaged me in these discussions.

The Return to Nature scandal has justifiably prompted discussion of whether Colorado should exert more regulatory oversight of the funeral business.  Colorado disbanded the Board of Mortuary Science in the late 1970s under the state’s “sunset” law, which allows state entities to be abolished.

I still have my Mortuary Science Trainee card from the State of Colorado Board of Mortuary Science, which I was required to have in order to work for the company during that era but no longer.

I hope state legislators will seriously consider what actions need be taken in the aftermath of this tragedy, but I also hope they keep in mind the vast majority of funeral homes are run responsibly and professionally and should not be punished for the actions of these monsters.

All my former bosses are now gone but Bill and Ruth Frye, Sam Peacock, Joe Giadone, Gil and Irene Sinks, Ted and Barbara Kuhns, George McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy and so many others I encountered during those years exemplified the highest professional standards and conduct as funeral directors. They, not the perpetrators of his horrible scandal, exemplify an honorable profession.

Dick Wadhams is a Republican political consultant and a former Colorado Republican state chairman.