Nearly 200 bodies were exhumed last week from a Colorado building owned by a funeral home that advertised “green burials,” far more human remains than investigators expected to find, US authorities said Tuesday.

The remains of at least 189 people have been recovered by US authorities from a funeral home in Colorado, where they were found two weeks ago in a state of decomposition and improper storage, the Associated Press reported, citing News.ro.

The remains were found by authorities in response to reports of a “disgusting odor” inside the old building of Back to Nature Funeral Home in the small town of Penrose, located about 100 miles south of Denver.

As of Oct. 13, all remains had been removed from the scene, but officials said the number could change again as the identification process continues.

The updated tally comes as families who work with funeral homes are increasingly concerned about what happened to their dead loved ones. Local authorities said they would begin notifying family members in the coming days once the remains have been identified.

There is no timetable for the completion of the work, which began last week with the help of an FBI team that goes to mass-casualty events such as plane crashes.

Terrible scenes in the funeral home

Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said he wants to provide accurate information to families “to prevent further victimization as they continue to grieve.”

Officials have not released more details about what was found inside the funeral home, but Fremont Sheriff Allen Cooper described the scene as gruesome.

On October 4, authorities entered the abandoned funeral home building with a search warrant and found decomposing bodies. Neighbors said they could smell the smell for several days.

The owners of Back to Nature Funeral Home have failed to pay their taxes in recent months, have been evicted from one of their homes and are being sued for unpaid bills by a crematorium that cut ties with them last year. Almost a year, according to public documents and interviews with people who worked with them.

The day after the smell was reported, the director of the state funeral home and crematorium’s registration office spoke to owner John Hallford by phone. He tried to cover up the improper storage of the bodies at Penrose, admitted he had a “problem” at the site, and claimed he practiced taxidermy there.

Colorado authorities do little to inspect funeral homes

Days after the discovery, law enforcement said the owners were cooperating as investigators tried to establish any criminal wrongdoing.

The company, which offered “green” cremations and burials without embalming fluids, stayed in business as its financial and legal problems mounted. Green burials are legal in Colorado, but any body not buried within 24 hours must be properly disposed of. cooled down

Last week, more than 120 families, concerned that their relatives might be among the remains, contacted law enforcement about the case. Identifying the remains can take weeks and will require fingerprinting, medical or dental records and DNA analysis.

Law enforcement officers found the bodies inside a building with an area of ​​230 square meters, which in appearance and size resembled an ordinary one-story house.

Colorado has some of the weakest oversight of funeral homes in the nation, with no regular inspections or qualification requirements for morticians.

There is no indication that state regulators visited the site or contacted Hallford until 10 months after Penrose Funeral Home’s registration expired.

Last year, state lawmakers gave regulators the power to inspect funeral homes without the owners’ consent, but no additional funds have been allocated to increase inspections.