Sunset Mesa Funeral Home Victims Support Each Other

People were typically charged upward of $1,000 for Sunset Mesa to cremate their family members’ remains. Many, however, never received the ashes. Instead, the victims were given the cremains of another person or multiple people mixed together, according to court documents. 

The money the Hess and Koch received from the body broker services allowed them to operate their business at a lower cost compared to other funeral services in the area, which incentivised more grieving families to work with them and ensured a steady flow of bodies, according to court documents. 

Body broker services often work with individuals who intend to do whole body donation for research and education, what is often referred to as “donating your body to science.” The donations go to state anatomical boards, medical schools, and nontransplant anatomical donation organizations, also known as NADOs, to study diseases, develop new medical procedures, and train surgeons.

Smith and her brother began making arrangements with Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in 2011 just before the death of their mother, Marianne Hamilton. Smith said her mother was an organ donor, and she signed a form that they believed would turn over live tissue and lifesaving organs. The form featured the logo of Donor Alliance, a legitimate organization, she said.

Smith recalled to BuzzFeed News that Hess hurried the family out following her mother’s death, preventing them from grieving over the body.

“In looking back at all this, it’s like those were the moments that really robbed us of our dignity, that robbed us of our ability to grieve, that robbed us of the sacredness and spirituality of being able to sit with your loved one for a few breaths, and be still with them and to be quiet with them,” Smith told BuzzFeed News. 

But it wasn’t until seven years later that they learned the full extent of what Hess and Koch had taken from them. 

After the news broke of the investigation in 2018, the FBI conducted a survey of the funeral homes’ customers, and Smith and her brother learned they were victims of Hess and Koch’s scheme. The FBI told them their mother’s body had been dismembered and sold for profit.

Smith’s brother, Abe Homer, told BuzzFeed News that their mother was a cardiac nurse, massage therapist, and shamanic healer, who used her hands to help others. Homer said he felt as if their mother had been disrespected after Hess and Koch sold their mother’s body parts, including her hands and heart.

“It tarnishes her symbolic legacy that these instruments that she used while she was alive to heal so many people were then turned into commodities to enrich these women’s lives for a really malicious reason,” Homer said.

Cressler also had her suspicions about Sunset Mesa. She told BuzzFeed News that in 2016, she filed a complaint with the Department of Regulatory Agencies, but nothing came of it. 

When authorities confirmed in 2018 what she had suspected, it brought about mixed emotions. 

“It was validating to tell people, ‘See, I’m not crazy, I was right,’ but at the same time, I just kind of fell apart,” she said.