Authorities find more bodies after initial report of 115 two weeks ago, when owners were evicted and police investigated foul odor

The remains of at least 189 decaying bodies were found and removed from a Colorado funeral home, up from about 115 reported when the bodies were discovered two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday.

The remains were found by authorities responding to a report of a foul odor at the Return to Nature funeral home inside a decrepit building in the small town of Penrose, Colorado.

Efforts to identify the remains began last week with help from an FBI team that gets deployed to mass casualty events like airline crashes. Fremont sheriff Allen Cooper described the scene as “horrific”.

  • Chickenstalker@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Funeral homes are parasites. Families should prepare and bury their own, unembalmed with no casket. A dead body is the most biodegradable matter in nature. Why pump it full of formalin and doll it up like a tart? Mourn the life of the dead, not their physical body.

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is the answer. It’s a pollution issue as much as a mortician issue.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There is this clothing donation dumpster thing by my work that has a couch infront of it. It’s pretty clear to me what happened. Someone brought it, noticed the sign that says no furniture donations, and decided that it wasn’t his problem.

        It would be pretty much like that. Find random bodies everywhere.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          This couch looks comfy, let’s put grandad there. No one will notice, put some sunglasses on him.

      • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Or just plain old burying a person too shallow. Not a huge problem now, but it’ll be a problem when coyotes and vultures and other scavengers dig the corpse up.

        • CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          FR tho

          It’s somehow three times the work to bury them a second time. Plus you always get stuck fixing during the day.

          Remember kids, if you think you dug the hole deep enough, you didn’t.

    • FraidyBear@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s illegal almost everywhere in the US to have a “natural” burial. There are laws on containers, treatment, and where the deceased can be buried. Dead bodies, while very biodegradable are also toxic and tend to get dug up and parts drug around by animals, up rooted by trees, or dug up during construction after the property is bought out. I do agree that funeral homes are soulless vultures who fleece people in mourning though, the last “fuck you” from capitalism.

      • at_an_angle@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I’ve looked it up years ago. In my state, you don’t need embalmed, a vault, or anything really. You can throw a fresh body into the ground in a handmade pine box if you want.

        I think the only restriction is an approved site for burial.

      • RaincoatsGeorge
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        1 year ago

        What constitutes a natural burial? At a cursory glance there are only about 5 states that don’t permit home burials and many of those just say it has to be in a cemetery, but you can apply for a family cemetery on your property and it’s completely legal.

        In Virginia and West Virginia at least there are no requirements whatsoever that you use a casket or bury them to any specific depth. I’d suspect that if you were disrespecting grandma and threw her in the garbage you would be breaking desecration of remains laws but doing a legitimate burial at home is completely fine.

        I can only speak to the laws of my state and those around me, and I suppose local municipalities might have differing laws, but it’s pretty open ended. You do not need a funeral home involved at all and frankly given how expensive these things are I totally support families that go that route.

        • rckclmbr@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I wish I could have a sky burial but I’m pretty sure theres nowhere in the US that could happen. And it would freak my wife out. I think the best option is aquamation (or hopefully recomposting since it was just legalized in california), since I can’t have a sky burial

          • RaincoatsGeorge
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            1 year ago

            I’ve said the same thing for years. One day my wishes will be honored!

          • pg_sax_i_frage@lemmy.wtf
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            1 year ago

            Well, you coild probably arrange for the soil/compost, resulting from that teconposting, to be used to grow some grain (or other native plants that might appeal to the local wildlife) , and then those could be fed to some birds 🐦 🐦 🐦, perhaps on a mountaintop 🌄, even. (i remember a story told at, I think this wasduring kne session at the ‘body composting conference’, about some peo friend and family who were left soil depositing some of it some quite remote places.) You could make a wole ceremony out of it, if that was desired.

            It’s a few extra steps, but maybe somewhat of a similar result, in a certain sense. And then the extra steps could give extra time for the grieving orocess, and link with the whole cycles of life thing, you know.

            Anyway, that’s just an idea. Hope you, and everyone, can find one that works for you, and find a way to have itgise wishes fulfilled later on. The option thts offered by recompose is cool, more options can certainly be good.

        • FraidyBear@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes and no, it’s not a black and white issue. I didn’t really want to go all in on the topic because it’s Googleable. My grandpa recently passed and it’s very expensive, we were looking for alternatives. On a federal level natural burial is allowed. The states take matters into their own hands. Some require burial vaults, some require embalming, some require that natural burials only happen in very specific places, and some require a mix of those things. It’s doable but if they can squeeze money out of you through laws or extreme inconvenience, they will. It’s not as easy and just picking a spot and burying a loved one, in a lot of cases.

          • Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            First of all, sorry to hear what you’re going through.

            In regards to natural burial, my understanding is that it’s more legal than not, just that there’s regulations depending on where you live. It’s very rare that embalming is required by law. Burial vaults are typically required when embalming fluids are used to slow the spread of the fluids to waterways. Neither of these are considered part of a natural burial.

            There’s a lot smoke and mirrors in the funeral industry that has led to wide misconceptions and outright misinformation. I asked if you were sure because the points you made are generally what a traditional burial funeral home would tell a client to steer them more towards their products. It’s awful that it’s become common for funeral homes to prey on those that are grieving. Absolutely despicable.

            I hope y’all find a way that honors your grandpa without causing additional stress.

        • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m not the guy that you’re responding too but I’ll add my anecdote.

          There was a somewhat off his rocker dude in my hometown that lived with his mom, she died, he didn’t notify anyone, buried her on his land (owned 15-20 acres or so, nothing large) and didn’t tell anyone. A few months go by and she obviously misses doctor appointments, church, etc so police check in. Then the guy says “oh yeah she died, I buried her, no biggie”. Turns out he violated a few laws doing this so he got some light jail time, she got exhumed, investigated to make sure she wasn’t murdered, then buried in a graveyard.

          I lived fairly close to all this being in the same county and learned that in Illinois at least, you can’t just bury your dead, you have to go through some processes.

          • Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            That’s right, there’s is a process. You can’t just bury people without reporting the death and going through some sort of process. That’s a good bit different from an actual natural burial even if at face value he did bury her naturally lol. That’s wild. I’ve heard of that happening in my region in the southern Appalachians too.

            • SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es
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              1 year ago

              I’ll give you one better. I once found a dude who had been chucked in a garbage pile by his son. This was out in the deep country, so lots of land and most people had a burn pile or area they chucked garbage. It was pretty cold, so the body didn’t decompose very much, but there he was, laying on the ground with trash bags and various household debris piled up on top of him. The son had wrapped him with some fitted sheets. It was wild.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Little of this is true. You can buy a wood casket, embalming is optional. Where you bury yes is regulated but maybe the rest of us don’t want to drink corpse water.

    • RaincoatsGeorge
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      1 year ago

      Fun fact. It’s completely legal and ok to take possession of your loved one, provided you are their legal next of kin, and you can effectively bury them yourselves. Find someone on Craigslist that can throw together a pine box and rent out an excavator for a weekend and you can bury grandma for a fraction of the cost.

      I have loaded a corpse into the bed of a pickup truck. We have sat bodies upright in the back of a suburban. All of this is completely legal so long as you don’t cross state lines and even then you just need a permit.

      Each state handles it differently but largely this is the same wherever you go.

      Spend the 5k to 10k on a nice trip to Vegas, Grammy would have wanted it that way.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Is it legal to have a Viking funeral where you’re set adrift in a longboat and someone fires a flaming arrow at it and it goes down on fire? Asking for a friend.

        • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          No. Not an any state when I looked into it a decade ago

          That being said, sometimes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, if you get me.

        • SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es
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          1 year ago

          My dad helped with a ‘burial at sea’ thing. I’m sure they had some sort of permit, because it was a real to-do with a big casket weighted down so it would sink and such. The story goes that the weights weren’t enough to sink it, and the casket ended up being air tight, so they shot a few holes in it to let air out and water in. I’m pretty sure they did it in international waters.

        • RaincoatsGeorge
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          1 year ago

          That’s actually a great question and I don’t know the answer. It might not be permitted because of concerns about disposing of remains and whatnot but again each state is different with their laws.

          Personally I want a sky burial but I don’t think I’d be able to sell that to my family.

      • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You can also just not claim grandma’s body and let your tax dollars handle it at an even bigger bargain.

        • RaincoatsGeorge
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          1 year ago

          You are absolutely correct sort of. After ten days we notify the state that nobody has claimed the body. They will then take upwards of 3 months and look into all of their family and known associates. I suspect if you are well off and don’t have a good reason to refuse to pay for a funeral they are going to put the pressure on you to do so. But I don’t know that there’s a legal Avenue for them to force you to do so. They can carve up that persons estate to pay for it and I think most people have a general quantity of things and money they can pull from. But yeah if that person has nothing and you say no, yah probably you’re gettin off.

          Your grandma will rot the whole time. We have to open those bags to confirm who is inside anytime they change hands so I get to see the remnants of that and u know it is what it is. Mostly it’s homeless people and that’s just the expected process. But occasionally there’s families that just won’t do it and I mean I’m not one to blame them. Even the cheapest traditional options are thousands of dollars.

          Fascinating industry though. It’s not my primary job but you have to learn the funeral business to function with those sorts. They’re my favorite. They’re all a little fucked up in their own way. Some a lot of way.

            • RaincoatsGeorge
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              1 year ago

              That’s cool. They can’t and won’t. But I think it’s pretty straightforward for most middleish class people to set aside a few thousand to cover their disposal. You don’t even have to specifically set that money aside. You set it aside when you collect baseball cards or limited edition Mountain Dew code zero call of duty custom 2 liters.

              Just let your family carve up your bullshit and sell it to stupid drunk people.

              • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                lol so cute of you to assume that I have or ever will acquire anything of value or have savings. My only real goal in life is to not end up homeless before I die

      • zerofk@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        “Everywhere you go” inside this one count you’re talking about. Maybe.

    • papertowels@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      What happens if you don’t own land?

      Wait…You… You are saying to only bury your dead on your own land, right?

      Padme_meme.jpg

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It turns out that humans and their pets are horrible for the environment because we’re just filled with chemicals from medication, cosmetics, and food. We’re not living our natural best anymore.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      It’s actually illegal in most countries to bury a dead body without alerting your authorities and usually there are restrictions on where you can do it.

      You can of course just cremate the body, you don’t have to go with a cemetery.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Embalming is optional and always has been. You can purchase biodegradable caskets and again that was always been an option. Open caskets are by family request and often aren’t even an option.

      I also saw Adam Ruins everything.