It could take months for authorities to decide whether to charge the owner of a Pueblo funeral home where investigators found 24 decomposing bodies and multiple containers of human bones, officials said Wednesday.
Clint Thomason, assistant director at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, said investigators plan to identify all of the bodies before filing charges.
Brian Cotter, who resigned from his elected position as county coroner last month, owned Davis Mortuary with his brother, Chris. The CBI has not questioned either of the men, as both have retained legal counsel.
As of Wednesday, investigators identified six bodies in what the agency described as a “slow methodical process.” Some of the remains could be at least 15 years old.
“We’ve been consulting very closely with the district attorney and we’ve made a deliberate decision to not file piecemeal file charges,” Thomason said. “We want to try to file all the charges that we can at one time. We believe that’s going to be the best way to handle this case and to deliver the justice that needs to be done.”
Most of the remains discovered are likely from people who died between 2010 and 2012, Thomason said. None of the records at Davis Mortuary were electronically stored, so investigators are still manually reviewing the paperwork, he said.
“It’s kind of slowing down the identification,” Thomason said.
Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller used dental X-rays and fingerprints to identify the six bodies and will now use DNA samples to identify the remaining 18, he said.
CBI said it will notify families if they need DNA samples to help identify the remaining bodies.
“We will reach out to folks if we need DNA. Please do not show up at one of our CBI forensic laboratories or CBI in general or any of the other law enforcement agencies volunteering your DNA. That’s not necessary,” Thomason said.
So far, CBI has received 1,359 phone and email tips to its tipline.
The bodies were found during an inspection of the Cotters’ funeral home, mandated by law. After noticing a strong odor, inspectors found bodies in various stages of decomposition behind a hidden door.
Cotter told inspectors that he may have given fake cremated remains to next of kin, according to the CBI.
Thomason said the agency “has no indication” that the Cotters are a flight risk, noting ties to the Pueblo community, and said that CBI has been in contact with the men’s lawyers “almost on a weekly basis.”
Investigators are still working to determine the sources of jars of tissue and containers of bones also found inside the funeral home.