At least 189 decomposed bodies were found and removed from a funeral home in Colorado, a new balance after the 115 bodies discovered two weeks ago, US authorities said Tuesday.
The remains were found by authorities following a report of an unpleasant odor at Return to Nature Funeral Home, located in an older building in the small town of Penrose, Colorado.
Efforts to identify the remains began last week, with the help of a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team sent to mass casualty cases.
Fremont Sheriff Allen Cooper described the scene as gruesome, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The discovery came after the owners of the Return to Nature funeral home failed to pay taxes in recent months.
After the eviction of one of his properties and accusations of debts to a crematorium, which no longer worked with this house, the discovery was made.
A day after the foul odor was reported, the director of the state Office of Registration of Funeral Homes and Crematoriums spoke on the phone with owner Jon Hallford.
He acknowledged he had a problem at the Penrose branch and claimed he practiced taxidermy. [técnica em que um corpo é preservado] in that room, according to an October 5 order from state authorities.
Responding to a “disgusting odor,” authorities entered the abandoned funeral home building with a search warrant on October 4 and found the decomposing bodies.
Colorado has some of the weakest rules for funeral homes in the country, with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral directors.
Last week, more than 120 families became concerned that their relatives might be among the remains and contacted authorities about the case.
El Paso County Coroner Leon Kelly said it could take weeks to identify the remains found.
Source: DN
