Colorado cracks down on funeral homes after discoveries of rotting bodies
After the discovery of nearly 200 decaying bodies in a Colorado funeral home in October, lawmakers saw the need to tighten the state’s lax funeral home oversight and on Monday passed a bill that – in combination with a second bill that passed last week – would help to regulate the industry.
A series of cases that include sold ashes and fake body parts have devastated hundreds of already grieving families and shed a glaring spotlight on the state’s funeral home regulations, some of the weakest in the US. The bill passed on Monday will head to Governor Jared Polis’s desk after the state house considers a minor change by the senate.
The legislation would give regulators greater enforcement power over funeral homes and require the routine inspection of facilities including after one shutters. The second bill, which is already headed to the governor’s desk, would require funeral directors and other industry roles to be licensed. Those qualifications would include background checks, degrees in mortuary science, passage of a national examination and work experience.
The legislation arrived after the 190 decomposing bodies were found at a funeral home’s bug-infested facility about two hours south of Denver. Many families were left wondering whether the cremated remains they received were actually their child’s or parent’s. Some have learned they were not.
Instead, some bodies were languishing in a building, some for four years. The owners have been arrested and face hundreds of charges, including abuse of a corpse.
At another Colorado funeral home in February, a body was discovered that had been left in the back of a hearse for over a year.
Funeral directors do not have to graduate high school and regulators were not required to do routine inspections, as is the case in many other states. These bills would be a dramatic update, and the funeral home industry is generally on board.
“We as Colorado cannot be the laughing stock any more as the only unlicensed funeral state,” said Joe Walsh, president of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association.
Walsh said that a majority of funeral directors wanted licensing requirements, and that while the new rules might be a hassle at times, they were a good step in bringing Colorado in line with the rest of the country.