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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff and agencies

Colorado cracks down on funeral homes after discoveries of rotting bodies

Funeral hearse and police tape outside funeral home
A funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, where bodies were discovered. Photograph: Jerilee Bennett/AP

After the discovery of nearly 200 decaying bodies in a Colorado funeral home in October, lawmakers saw the need to tighten the state’s lax funeral home oversight and on Monday passed a bill that – in combination with a second bill that passed last week – would help to regulate the industry.

A series of cases that include sold ashes and fake body parts have devastated hundreds of already grieving families and shed a glaring spotlight on the state’s funeral home regulations, some of the weakest in the US. The bill passed on Monday will head to Governor Jared Polis’s desk after the state house considers a minor change by the senate.

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