Bill would create Colorado’s first license to be funeral home director

After nearly 200 corpses were found piled up and rotting at a Colorado funeral home, lawmakers proposed bills to overhaul the state’s funeral home regulations, which have failed to prevent a series of tragedies. case — from body parts for sale to fake ashes.

The cases have destroyed hundreds of families. Many found that the remains of their loved ones were not in the ashes they had ceremonially spread or held tightly for years but instead had decomposed in a building or, in one case, behind a corpse.

Their devastation prompted state lawmakers to release a bipartisan bill Monday that would enact Colorado’s first licensing requirements to become a funeral director, bringing licensing rules in line with all other states. and more than most. The bill also sets requirements for other jobs in the industry, including embalmers and cremationists.

“Too many Colorado families have had to face the horrible and unacceptable reality that the remains of their loved ones were mishandled, lost, improperly cared for, sold and completely disrespected,” the Democratic said. Sen. Dylan Roberts, one of the bill’s sponsors, at a press conference.

“Things have reached a breaking point,” he said.

It’s a dramatic update in a state where funeral directors are not required to graduate from high school. If the bill passes, the license would require a background check, a degree in mortuary science, passing a national exam and an apprenticeship.

In February, just months after 190 bodies were found in an insect-infested funeral home facility two hours south of Denver, another body was found in a separate case: that of Christina Rosales.

Rosales’ body was found in a mortuary, wrapped in sheets, and discovered only because the owner of the suburban Denver funeral home was evicted. Rosales passed away at the age of 63 due to Alzheimer’s, and her husband, George Rosales, chose the funeral home because they were friends with the operator.

When George Rosales learns that his late wife’s body was left on a hearse’s gurney, and that he was given her ashes by someone else, he tries to stay strong for their two grown children.

Privately, he said Monday, tears welling up in his eyes, “I’ve cried many times for her.”

“After 18 months I thought I was done with this but it started again,” he said after speaking at a news conference in favor of the bill. “I probably wouldn’t have known about my husband’s body if he hadn’t been kicked out.”

A second Colorado bill enacted would require regular inspections by regulators, including after a funeral home is registered — which occurred at the funeral home leased by George Rosales. Colorado currently lags behind other states, many of which have routine inspections annually or every few years.

“We currently license hairdressers. We currently inspect restaurants. We need to do the same, or certainly more, for funeral homes,” said Republican Rep. Matt Soper, one to the sponsors of the bill.

When the FBI told Shelia Canfield-Jones that her son’s remains had been found among nearly 200 at a facility in Colorado, she sat with officials holding the urn in disbelief. The mother refused to part with what she thought were her son’s ashes for four years.

Canfield-Jones recalled an officer finally removing the ashes from the urn, repeating: “This is not your daughter.”

“He had to keep telling us,” she said in an interview, her eyes welling up. “It’s horrible.”

Canfield-Jones is left with nightmares of her daughter’s decomposing body.

190 bodies were discovered last year in a building in Penrose, and the owners were arrested and face hundreds of charges, including abuse of a corpse. A red flag was raised by the local coroner in 2020, three years before the bodies were discovered.

Joe Walsh, president of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association, said the group is in favor of the law, although he cautioned against believing these rules can prevent all future tragedies.