FILE: Funeral with coffin (Credit: Getty Images)
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Two Colorado men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly mishandling dozens of decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home.
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Brothers accused of mishandling remains of 2 dozen people at funeral home
Big picture view:
According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation statement, charges were filed against former Pueblo County Coroner Brian Lee Cotter, 65, and his brother, Christopher Aaron Cotter, 60, which included 125 counts of abuse of a corpse.
Police arrested the men in Pueblo, about 110 miles south of Denver, and they were jailed on a $1 million bond. They were set to appear in state court for the first time Friday afternoon in Pueblo, according to court documents.
The men had no attorney on record in court documents to comment on their behalf.
State inspectors find ‘strong odor of decomposition’
The backstory:
Last summer, state inspectors found remains behind a hidden door in the Davis Mortuary in Pueblo. The inspectors found a “strong odor of decomposition” after arriving at the business owned by the two brothers.
Brian Cotter allegedly told inspectors at the time he may have given fake ashes to next of kin who sought cremations. He resigned as coroner in September.
Investigators have identified 19 of the 24 bodies recovered, plus the remains of two people whose tissue was found in containers at the mortuary site, according to the investigators’ statement.
The bodies and “numerous skeletal remains” were allegedly stored in conditions that violated professional and ethical standards, the statement alleged.
Containers marked as cremains and containing “human skeletal material” were found in disarray, with many lacking proper identification, the investigators alleged.
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What They’re Saying: “The evidence uncovered during this investigation reveals a complete disregard for the dignity of the deceased and the trust placed in Davis Mortuary by families in our community,” CBI Director Armando Saldate said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring that those responsible for these actions are held accountable.”
Colorado’s oversight of funeral homes
Dig deeper:
The discovery in Pueblo came during the first inspection of Davis Mortuary under rules adopted in 2024 in response to prior crimes within Colorado’s funeral industry.
Colorado long had some of the weakest oversight of funeral homes in the nation. The state did not require routine inspections or set qualifications for people to become funeral home operators. Numerous abuses resulted.
RELATED: Former funeral home owner sentenced to 18 years in prison after giving families fake ashes
In March, a former Colorado funeral home owner who helped her ex-husband hide nearly 200 decomposing bodies in a building for years and gave families fake ashes was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Carie Hallford and her ex-husband Jon Hallford took $130,000 from families for funeral services, including cremations, often giving them urns full of concrete mix instead. In two cases, investigators found the wrong body was buried.
Hallford asked for leniency, saying she became another person because of abuse and manipulation during her marriage to her ex-husband.
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