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.
The cases have shattered hundreds of families. Many learned that their loved ones’ remains were not in the ashes they ceremonially spread or held tight for years but were instead decaying in a building or, in one case, the back of hearse.
Their devastation pushed state lawmakers to unveil a bipartisan bill on 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. The bill also sets requirements for other industry jobs, including embalmers and cremationists.