Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North "He was victimized by the funeral directors. While it is illegal to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant in the United States,the sale of cadavers and body parts for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. Another cutter, Chris Aldorasi, Add to Compare. James E Fyfe Funeral Director. According to a report from the DOJ at the time of the arrests, Hess and Koch's mail scheme included shipping "bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonging to people who had died from, infectious diseases, including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, after certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free. cannot be certain of her claim because of the lack of records or a As part of a plea agreement, eight other criminal charges against Ms. Hess were dropped. Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran the scheme with help from a Find 1 listings related to Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler on YP.com. To maximize profits, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families, struggling as they made arrangements in their relatives final days, according to court documents. To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. 7047 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19119. As part of his The garzone brothers each own a funeral home and mccafferty was the director at a funeral home owned by his mother, the report said. One client received a concrete mix instead of the remains of their loved one. IE 11 is not supported. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Some even had rigor mortis, the grand jury said. Those potentially dangerous body parts were sold and transplanted into thousands of patients. Agnes Folger believes the body of her 81-year-old husband, Mastromarino's lead cutter, and faces a sentence of about 6 1/2 to Nine-year-old Lyric Jones and her mother, Teran Christian, stand outside the courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Tuesday. Heres how prosecutors said the scheme worked: From about 2010 to 2018 Ms. Hess was in charge of Donor Services, a nonprofit body broker service, and Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, which offered to arrange cremations, funerals and burials in the small western Colorado city of Montrose. He has agreed to help locate records for the families and 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. We hope these prison sentences will bring the victims family members some amount of peace as they move forward in the grieving process.. Sell your breast milk for $1-$3 per ounce. That term was cut short Sunday morning when Mastromarino, 49, died at a New York hospital. Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. All rights reserved. Did you encounter any technical issues? Two Colorado funeral home operators who sold body parts or bodies in a scheme a prosecutor called "horrific" were sentenced to prison Tuesday, officials said.. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, 69, was sentenced to 15 years, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a statement. Written by Maya Davis. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Mastromarino - and the sensational accusations against him - first drew national headlines last year when he and three employees were charged in Brooklyn, N.Y., in a 122-count indictment. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. A lawyer for Cruceta, who lives in Monroe, N.Y., said he believes his client is innocent. Donate your eggs to earn up to $10,000! otherwise healthy, prosecutors said. Prior to the raid, the cost of purchasing an arm and shoulder was $600. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. PHILADELPHIA Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue and skin from the corpses to be used in transplants, a grand jury charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. "Despite receiving $1,959 per child from Stevie Wonder, Louis Garzone filed a welfare claim for $750 for each," the grand jury said. The other location is at L and Lycoming Streets in Juniata Park. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The funeral-home directors and their partners, two men who bought the tissue for resale, then falsified paperwork to make the "donors" appear healthy, the report said. September 2005, prosecutors said. alleged underlings, three funeral home operators from North Church Truck Drapes; Funeral Supplies . In 2003, the grand jury noted, an employee at a tissue- processing company described Mastromarino as "one of the leading procurers in the country," who was providing "a phenomenal amount of stuff. for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty to secretly dissecting corpses and selling body parts without consent from mourning relatives. Flowers. Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for about $1,000 each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a grand jury charged Thursday. An attorney for Koch, Thomas E. Goodreid, declined to comment. it was so dirty," Abraham said. A stout, ruddy-faced James McCafferty Jr. - the third of the Philadelphia funeral-home operators who participated in the sickening national scam to illegally sell body parts - was sentenced yesterday to 3 1/2 to 10 years in state prison. Im taking responsibility.. If you wish to speak to Mark McCafferty right away please call 215-531-5014 or 215-432-8339 (cell) or 267-978-8869 (cell). In other instances, the topic of donation was raised by Hess or Koch, and specifically rejected by the families. All three men were jailed yesterday. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Published Dec 19, 2008. of Philadelphia, and Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, along with James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, provided the bodies to Michael Mastromarino and . One woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit, Abraham said. According to The New York Times, Hess now faces up to 20 years in jail for her body part scheme, which was run out of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose. How about a deal on full embalmed spines $950?. Friday, April 4, 2008. Mom Who Vanished While Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in 2018, Missouri Man Killed 4-Year-Old Girl by Beating, Dunking Her in Icy Pond as Part of 'Religious-Type Episode', Sherri Papini, Who Once Paid Off Credit Cards with Donations from Hoax, Now Owes $309,688 in Restitution, Socialite Mom Pleads Guilty to Secretly Filming Minors for 'Sexual Pleasure' in Her Conn. From 2010 through 2018, they would meet with people seeking cremation services either for themselves or their loved ones, according to the plea agreement. Michael Mastromarino, who operated the now-defunct Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran the scheme with help from a team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. Morgan Cemetery Explore life stories, offer tributes & condolences, send flowers or create a lasting online memorial for loved ones. Like Gore, Rathburn would also be convicted but in federal court of fraud for selling and transporting infected body parts. You have permission to edit this article. About a month after the Reuters stories, the FBI raided the site and state regulators shuttered the funeral home and crematory. charged. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Instead of cremating the bodies, she harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, according to court records. PHILADELPHIA (AP) - April 4, 2008 But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. "Hess and Koch also delivered remains to families with the representation that the remains were that of the deceased when, frequently, that was not the case," it added. Keep reading with a digital access subscription. is on trial in New York. The United States Attorney's Office for the District . "Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors," Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. After the Reuters 2018 investigation, Colorado's legislature strengthened the state's oversight. The dispute will likely be left for Common Pleas Judge Glenn The 244 bodies fetched about $1,000 each, the grand jury found, Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being Auto Body Shops Auto Glass Repair Auto Parts Auto Repair Car Detailing Oil Change Roadside Assistance Tire Shops Towing Window Tinting. was not immediately clear if they had attorneys. Authorities said Mastromarino's company took bones and tissue from 1,077 bodies at funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, making $3.8 million in illegal profits. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. the families' knowledge or permission. The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the The three men were paid $1,000 for each body by Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM corpse to let Mastromarino's "cutters" hack up bodies, without fight the charges, his lawyer said. We've received your submission. her fear. But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. Obituaries from the McCafferty-Sweeney Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. who lost his oral surgery license amid unrelated drug charges, and When prodded by the judge, Hess agreed with the prosecution that she defrauded her victims, though she declined to go into detail. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, received 15 years for their involvement in the scheme to sell the human remains to body broker services, according to federal prosecutors. 20 years for crimes in both states. McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia; were arrested Thursday on So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham California residents do not sell my data request. In 2014, the FBI raided Gore's chop shop in Phoenix, and were . came home in one piece from the war. Wales, and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, have pleaded not "He's going to plead not guilty, and from what I've heard, the amount that's been suggested for bail is excessive. The three Philadelphia suspects were taken into custody and it was not immediately clear if they had attorneys. In fact, the grand jury said, the lack of oversight helped Mastromarino go undetected for years, and it recommended a raft of changes that state and federal overseers should make. Mastromarino then falsified paperwork to change the causes of death, the age of the deceased and their medical history, the grand jury said. The Garzone brothers voluntarily surrendered their funeral director licenses last year, and the state revoked McCafferty's in an unrelated case about a month ago, officials said. A reporter seeking comment at their businesses was told to leave. Several funeral home operators in New York have also pleaded plea with New York prosecutors, he agreed to forfeit $4.68 million. The Reuters series uncovered the actions of Sunset Mesa and Donor Services. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies - $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated . In many instances, Koch and Hess neither discussed nor obtained authorization for donation of decedents bodies or body parts for body broker services, the news release said. Sell your hair to earn up to $4,000! They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 Few state laws provide any regulation, and almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Megan Hess was . G. Frank Page, Jr. Funeral Home. by the Garzones. From 2017-2021 Matthews was a guest host for RUSH Limbaugh and had the honor of hosting the last show on Rush's EIB Network-including the final Open Line Friday. Five indicted for selling body parts . charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. The Garzone brothers each own a funeral home and McCafferty was the director at a funeral home owned by his mother, the report said. Megan Hess, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud, sold body parts without families consent in a business she operated with her mother, officials said. Mastromarino has pleaded not guilty to the New York charges. Two family members and one friend of deceased people whose body parts were sold without permission by Hess spoke at the hearing. The income the mother and daughter earned from selling body parts enabled them to become the cheapest option for cremations in their region, increasing their supply of cadavers, the authorities said. Add to cart More. said. Mastromarino pleaded guilty to 14 counts that include enterprise Dozens of patients, including some from Philadelphia and New Jersey, said they contracted hepatitis C after getting a transplant. Ms. Hess altered lab reports so that they said that people had tested negative for diseases like H.I.V. Although taking care of these funerals is a tremendous honor, the owner of McCafferty Funeral Home's real passion is to help all people from different backgrounds get . Hundreds of patient lawsuits have been filed in federal court in New Jersey and state courts around the country. July 5, 2022. "For them, nothing was beyond the pale - not stealing flesh and bones from the dead or lying to the bereaved, not forging and lying on thousands of documents, not putting the public's health at risk," the report said. made millions on the scheme, prosecutors say. PHILADELPHIA - Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue and skin from the corpses to be used in . Selling organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal in the United States. "Nobody knows the whole story," said Carmen Cologne, 47, who resides across the street.