{"id":2864,"date":"2026-06-26T12:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2864"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:33:59","slug":"brothers-are-accused-of-mishandling-remains-of-two-dozen-people-at-colorado-funeral-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2864","title":{"rendered":"Brothers are accused of mishandling remains of two dozen people at Colorado funeral home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>FORT COLLINS<\/strong> |  Police on Thursday arrested two Colorado men, including a former county coroner, for allegedly mishandling at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home.<\/p>\n<p>Charges filed against former Pueblo County Coroner Brian Lee Cotter, 65, and his brother, Christopher Aaron Cotter, 60, included 125 counts of abuse of a corpse, according to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation statement.<\/p>\n<p>Police arrested the men in Pueblo, and they were jailed on $1 million bond. Brian Cotter was set to appear in state court for the first time Friday afternoon in Pueblo, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Cotter\u2019s attorneys said in a statement to The Associated Press that he has been cooperative throughout the investigation and will continue to cooperate throughout the judicial process \u201cin hopes of bringing closure and peace to everyone impacted by this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>No attorney was listed in court records Thursday for Christopher Cotter. The Associated Press left phone messages Thursday for relatives of the brothers.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, state inspectors found remains behind a hidden door in the Davis Mortuary in Pueblo about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Denver. The inspectors found a \u201cstrong odor of decomposition\u201d after arriving at the business owned by the two brothers.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Cotter allegedly told inspectors at the time he may have given fake ashes to next of kin who sought cremations. He resigned as coroner in September.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators have identified 19 of the 24 bodies recovered plus the remains of two people whose tissue was found in containers at the mortuary site, according to the investigators\u2019 statement.<\/p>\n<p>The bodies and \u201cnumerous skeletal remains\u201d were allegedly stored in conditions that grossly violated professional and ethical standards, the statement alleged.<\/p>\n<p>Containers marked as cremains and containing \u201chuman skeletal material\u201d were found in disarray, with many lacking proper identification, the investigators alleged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d CBI Director Armando Saldate said in a statement. \u201cWe are committed to ensuring that those responsible for these actions are held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The discovery in Pueblo came during the first inspection of Davis Mortuary under rules adopted in 2024 in response to prior crimes within Colorado\u2019s funeral industry.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado long had some of the weakest oversight of funeral homes in the nation. The state did not require routine inspections or set qualifications for people to become funeral home operators.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous abuses resulted. They included nearly 200 decomposing bodies kept at room temperature in a building in Penrose, Colorado, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Pueblo.<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press reporter Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this story.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2858\">Trans youth face mental health crises as doctors refuse care at Aurora Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2860\">Venezuela health minister says around 235 people dead and 4,300 injured in catastrophic earthquakes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2862\">Venezuelans hope online posts will bring news of missing after devastating earthquakes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FORT COLLINS | Police on Thursday arrested two Colorado men, including a former county coroner, for allegedly mishandling at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home. Charges filed against former Pueblo County Coroner Brian Lee Cotter, 65, and his brother, Christopher Aaron Cotter, 60, included [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[4642,4643,289,4644,4645],"class_list":["post-2864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state-and-region","tag-brian-cotter","tag-christopher-cotter","tag-colorado-bureau-of-investigation","tag-davis-mortuary","tag-pueblo-county-sheriffs-office"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Brothers are accused of mishandling remains of two dozen people at Colorado funeral home - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2864\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brothers are accused of mishandling remains of two dozen people at Colorado funeral home - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FORT COLLINS | Police on Thursday arrested two Colorado men, including a former county coroner, for allegedly mishandling at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home. 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