Dozens of body parts found after cops unearth chilling message about ‘four or five deaths a day’ in sick funeral scheme

DOZENS of body parts were found after cops unearthed a chilling message about "four or five deaths a day" in a sick funeral scheme.

Megan Hess, 45, a former funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to mail fraud in a scheme where she dissected corpses and sold body parts without consent from the deceased's family.

As part of the plea agreement, all of the other charges against Hess - which included five more counts of mail fraud and three counts of transporting hazardous material - will be dropped.

Hess used to operate the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home and a human body parts business called Donor Services in the same building.

She was admitted to federal court on Tuesday for defrauding several families who paid to have their loved ones cremated.

However, instead of doing so, Hess is accused of keeping heads, spines, arms and legs and selling them, according to court records.

She originally pleaded not guilty and now prosecutors are asking she serve 12 to 15 years in prison, however, her defense attorney has requested a lighter sentence of two years.

Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, started Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation in 2009, a nonprofit donor services organization.

It was dubbed a "body-broker service" that operated out of the final home and sold body parts to third parties for surgical training and other medical purposes.

The pair were indicted by a grand jury in March 2020 and were accused of forging signatures on consent forms and misleading families about the remains of their loved ones.

"I'm taking responsibility," Hess said after pleading guilty. "I'm here to accept the plea. The families believe I went beyond the scope. of the consent forms."

Customers were charged over $1,000 for cremations that were never fulfilled and Hess often targeted poor families as they struggled to make arrangements in their loved one's finals days, read court docs.

Hess would also offer free cremations in exchange for body donations.

Prosecutors said families received ashes mixed with the remains of different cadavers and one client even received a concrete mix instead of the ashes of their loved one.