Following high-profile cases of mismanagement, several laws regulating the funeral industry came into force

Gov. Jared Polis signed three bills Friday to regulate the state’s funeral industry following a string of high-profile cases of gross mismanagement in recent years. Until now, Colorado was the only state in the country that did not regulate funeral home directors.

“Too many families in Colorado have faced the unthinkable, not knowing what happened to their loved ones’ earthly remains after paying for services they never received,” Polis said. “It is time to professionalize the funeral industry in Colorado.”

When Samantha Naranjo’s grandmother, Dorothy Tardif, died in Colorado Springs in 2022, the family received her ashes from Return to Nature, a so-called green burial company based in Penrose but with a storefront in Colorado Springs.

Naranjo said the family scattered what they believed to be her grandmother’s ashes in the mountains. They also combined some of her ashes with those of her deceased husband and son.

However, more than a year later, the FBI informed them that Tardif’s body had not been cremated and they never received her ashes. It was powdered cement. Her remains were found in a building in Penrose, where investigators discovered hundreds of improperly stored bodies and evidence that the couple who owned Return to Nature sent fake ashes to families.

“One of the things that helped identify her body was the nightgown she was wearing,” Naranjo said. She said she hopes no other family will have to experience this.

“I will forever carry with me the Quikrete (cement) mixed with my grandfather and uncle,” she said.

Colorado’s new law, which goes into effect in 2026, will require funeral home directors, undertakers, embalmers, cremationists and natural reductionists to hold a professional degree in mortuary medicine, pass a national board examination, and complete a year of professional experience and passing a criminal background check.

People currently working in the industry without a degree can receive a provisional license if they pass a national board exam and work a sufficient number of hours.

“It’s not necessarily a happy occasion, but it’s a time to thank the family members who are here for your support,” said Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts, the bill’s lead sponsor.

“I think what you went through is absolutely terrible and horrific and should not have happened in the first place, but your commitment to make something good out of a terrible situation is commendable,” he told the families present.

Roberts first became involved in the case several years ago when a funeral home in his district in Leadville was caught mixing the ashes of a deceased infant with those of others, prompting an investigation and charges.

In 2022, Roberts helped pass bipartisan legislation giving the state authority to inspect funeral homes, but the state has not designated a full-time employee to conduct the inspections. On Friday, Polis signed House Bill 1335, which would add two full-time inspectors.

Joe Walsh, head of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association, which has been asking the state for regulations for more than a decade, said introducing the new regulations was the right step.

“It’s a very sad, torturous and winding journey to get here,” Walsh said.

Walsh owns 5,280 funeral homes in Aurora and said the law balances oversight and safeguards without forcing good funeral home directors to leave the industry. He said none of the incidents in Colorado should have happened, but added that those tragedies fueled the legislation.

“No one will change this if everything runs smoothly in principle. And that’s the saddest thing that these families had to go through this.”

Republican Matt Soper of Delta also sponsored the legislation after dealing with high-profile incidents on the Western Slope. It was found that body parts of hundreds of corpses were sold at a funeral home in Montrose without the consent of the deceased and his relatives. Megan Hess, former owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, is currently serving 20 years in federal prison.

“Is my loved one really being cremated? Is my loved one really in this plot? You should never think about it on the day you’re at the funeral of a loved one,” Soper said.

A report by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs details a number of disturbing incidents that occurred at other facilities across the state that did not make headlines. These included improper refrigeration, poor record-keeping and shoddy embalming that led to decay and an unpleasant odor. There were also cases of debris lying in puddles with its own liquids and unprotected ashes left on unclean cooling trays.

House Bill 1254 was the last funeral-related proposal Polis signed into law. Prohibits a funeral home owner from owning a non-transplantable tissue bank.