Authorities in Colorado arrested two brothers Thursday on charges connected to the alleged mishandling of at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other human remains discovered behind a concealed door inside a funeral home.
Former Pueblo County Coroner Brian Lee Cotter, 65, and his brother Christopher Aaron Cotter, 60, now face a combined 125 counts of abuse of a corpse, according to a statement from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Both men were taken into custody in Pueblo and are being held on $1 million bond each. Court documents indicate the brothers were scheduled to make their first appearance in state court Friday afternoon in Pueblo.
The grim discovery was made last summer when state inspectors visited Davis Mortuary in Pueblo — located roughly 110 miles south of Denver — and detected a powerful odor of decomposition. Upon further investigation, they found the remains hidden behind a secret door at the business the two brothers owned.
Neither man had an attorney listed in court documents. The Associated Press attempted to reach Brian Cotter and family members of both brothers by phone on Thursday without success.
At the time of the initial inspection, Brian Cotter reportedly told investigators he may have given fake ashes to families of loved ones who had requested cremations. He stepped down from his role as county coroner in September.
Of the 24 bodies recovered, investigators have been able to identify 19. The remains of two additional individuals were found in containers at the mortuary site. Investigators say the bodies and numerous skeletal remains were stored in conditions that fell far short of professional and ethical standards.
Containers labeled as cremated remains and holding human skeletal material were found in a state of disarray, with many missing proper identification labels, according to investigators.
CBI Director Armando Saldate released a statement condemning the situation: “The evidence uncovered during this investigation reveals a complete disregard for the dignity of the deceased and the trust placed in Davis Mortuary by families in our community. We are committed to ensuring that those responsible for these actions are held accountable.”
The inspection of Davis Mortuary was the first conducted under new regulations Colorado put in place in 2024, rules that came about in response to earlier criminal cases involving the state’s funeral industry.
For years, Colorado was considered to have some of the loosest funeral home oversight in the country, with no requirements for routine inspections and no set qualifications for those seeking to operate a funeral home.
That lack of oversight had already led to serious problems, including a separate case in which nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found stored at room temperature in a building in Penrose, Colorado, approximately 30 miles from Pueblo.
