Two Colorado men, including a former county coroner, have been arrested for allegedly mishandling the remains of at least two dozen people found behind a hidden door in a funeral home. Brian Lee Cotter, 65, and his brother Christopher Aaron Cotter, 60, face 125 counts of abuse of a corpse, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The brothers were taken into custody in Pueblo and are being held on $1 million bond. They are scheduled to appear in court for the first time on Friday afternoon. The charges stem from an inspection last summer at Davis Mortuary in Pueblo, where state inspectors discovered a strong odour of decomposition and found remains behind a concealed door.
Investigators have identified 19 of the 24 bodies recovered, along with the remains of two people whose tissue was found in containers at the site. The bodies and skeletal remains were allegedly stored in conditions that violated professional and ethical standards. Containers marked as cremains were found in disarray, many lacking proper identification.
Brian Cotter allegedly told inspectors he may have given fake ashes to next of kin who sought cremations. He resigned as coroner in September. The discovery came during the first inspection of the mortuary under new rules adopted in 2024, following prior abuses in Colorado's funeral industry, which had some of the weakest oversight in the nation.
