Rotting bodies, fake ashes and sold body parts push Colorado to patch lax funeral home rules

DENVER — After nearly 200 bodies were found stacked and rotting in a Colorado funeral home, lawmakers have proposed bills to overhaul the state’s threadbare funeral home regulations, which failed to prevent a string of gruesome cases — from sold body parts to fake ashes. Their devastation pushed state lawmakers to unveil a bipartisan bill Monday that would implement Colorado’s first licensing requirements to become a funeral home director, bringing licensing rules in line with all other states and even surpassing most. “I probably wouldn’t have found out about my wife’s body if he wasn’t getting evicted.” A second Colorado bill set to be introduced will require routine inspections by regulators, including after a funeral home’s registration lapses — which occurred with the funeral home that George Rosales had hired. We need to be doing something similar, or certainly more so, for funeral homes,” said Republican Rep. Matt Soper, one of the bill’s sponsors.