State investigators now know the names of 18 people whose remains were left to decompose in a hidden back room of a Pueblo mortuary for over a decade, Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials said Wednesday.
All of the remains identified from Davis Mortuary so far are from people who died between 2010 and 2012, the CBI said in a news release. The remains of six people have still not been identified, and investigators are continuing to use forensic genetic genealogy — working with a private lab to match DNA to public databases and find distant relatives — to try to identify them because of the lack of mortuary records, the poor condition of the remains and degraded DNA.
State inspectors found the room of human remains at Davis Mortuary in August during their first inspection of the facility after state lawmakers beefed up Colorado funeral home regulations in the wake of other, similar scandals.
The CBI is still investigating “multiple containers of bones, cremains and probable human tissue representing an unknown number of deceased individuals” that were also found at the mortuary.
Investigators discovered 24 bodies behind a hidden doorway at the mortuary operated by then-coroner Brian Cotter in August. Cotter later resigned as coroner but has not been charged in connection with the case.
