Colorado state agencies are investigating after more than 100 bodies were found being improperly stored at a funeral home offering "green" burials.
The Fremont County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that deputies received a call reporting a "suspicious" incident. When they arrived at a building in Penrose, Colorado, they found it was owned by the "Return to Nature Funeral Home," which is based out of Colorado Springs.
The sheriff's office executed a search warrant at the property the following day. The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies and the Fremont County Coroner's Office also searched the property. The agencies found human remains were being "improperly stored" at the site.
Bodies at the funeral home are buried without embalming chemicals or metal caskets, according to the Associated Press.
Local residents reported smelling a foul stench from one of the funeral homes' buildings, which prompted the call to the sheriff's office.
Reporters were told the building and the remains inside did not pose a risk to the public during a press conference on Friday.
The sheriff's office declined to provide details of the scene inside the 2,500-square-foot facility, which is located next to the town's post office.
The funeral home buries non-embalmed bodies in biodegradable caskets, shrouds, or "nothing at all," according to its website. It also provides cremation services, which involve no chemicals.
The company started six years ago in Colorado Springs, according to state records.
Fremont County deputies guard the road leading to the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo. Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023— (AP)
Green burials are legal under Colorado law, but the state requires that any body not buried within 24 hours be properly refrigerated until they can be buried.
The funeral home sits near a number of nearby homes. Joyce Pavetti, 73, is the occupant of one, and told the AP that she began smelling the rot from the facility over the last few weeks.
She said her and her neighbors assumed it was a dead animal.
Another resident, Ron Alexander, told the AP he thought the smell was coming from a faulty septic tank.
Investigators are still determining if any illegal activity occurred at the facility.
“It is not clear if a crime has been committed, that is a focus of the investigation at the state and federal level,” FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya said.
Investigators said the operators of the funeral home have been contacted and are cooperating with the authorities.
