Three families are suing the owners of a Pueblo funeral home alleging their family members were among the 24 decomposing bodies found behind a hidden door earlier this year.
John Cordova entrusted his longtime friends, Chris Cotter and Brian Cotter, to cremate his granddaughter, Soledad, after she died moments after she was born in a Pueblo funeral home in 2012. Cordova received an urn with what they believed were the infant’s ashes and he buried it with his late wife.
Eleven years ago, Patricia Emerson began the grieving process of her husband, Melvin, believing he was treated with dignity and respect at Davis Mortuary, owned by the Cotters.
Samuel Walker was told that the body of his father, Carl, who died in 2010, was concealed in a basement for 14 years after he was supposed to be cremated.
The lawsuit, filed in Pueblo County District Court on Thursday, represents the first public identification of some of the 24 bodies that state inspectors found Aug. 20 while conducting a regulatory inspection of the funeral home. The inspection was the first required under a law passed in 2024 that overhauled state oversight of funeral homes.
State officials recovered the two dozen bodies and several other containers of what investigators believe to be human tissue and bones behind a hidden door in the mortuary and transferred them to the El Paso County coroner’s office last month for identification. So far, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said it has identified only six bodies and has not publicly named any of the dead.
The families are suing Davis Mortuary and co-owners and brothers Brian Cotter and Chris Cotter, who they say deceived them when they were most vulnerable by promising to treat their deceased loved ones with respect. Instead, their remains were discarded, some in boxes, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also names the Pueblo Masonic Temple Annex Association, which owns the building at 126 Broadway Ave., where the Cotters have long leased the space for the funeral home.
Brian Cotter served as Pueblo County’s coroner from 2014 until August, when he resigned, not long after the bodies were discovered. He was a longtime member of the Pueblo Masonic Temple Lodge 17, which operated in the same building as Davis Mortuary, the lawsuit said. He also served as the Colorado state grandmaster of Masons, also known as the Worshipful Master, between at least 2009 and 2010.
The lawsuit notes that Soledad’s body was found inside a white box wrapped with a green ribbon, which in Freemason teachings, the color symbolizes the “immortality of the soul.”
The foul odor from the decomposing bodies, some of which were more than 15 years old, would have been “so unique, powerful and unmistakable” that those who used the building, including the landlords, would have smelled the foul odor, attorneys said.
No attorneys were listed for the Cotters in online court records. A voicemail left for the Pueblo Masonic Temple Association was not returned.
Jim Koncilja, representing the families, said last month that his office has received between 40 and 50 calls from those who fear they may be victims of Davis Mortuary’s practices.
“The money’s one thing, but you know these poor people whose family members were identified, they’re being traumatized a second time and reliving a nightmare,” Koncilja said.
No criminal charges have been filed against Brian Cotter or Chris Cotter. The CBI said last month that it does not plan to file any criminal charges until all bodies have been identified.
“The families are frustrated,” Koncilja said. “We’re in limbo here. … They’re kind of clamoring for something to be done.”
“This may be one of those odd circumstances where the civil case may move faster than the criminal prosecution,” he added.
Emerson paid the $3,000 of Davis Mortuary’s bill for the funeral and cremation of her husband that Medicaid did not cover in 2011, the lawsuit said.
Emerson and her family held a memorial service believing the cremains were her husband’s.
“Through his words and tears, defendant Brian Cotter made personal guarantees to the Emerson family that Mr. Melvin Emerson’s remains would be handled with the utmost care,” the lawsuit said.