Pueblo Police have asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to take over the probe, given its experience investigating the Return to Nature Funeral Home case. A judge last year ordered that funeral home to pay $950 million to families whose loved ones’ remains were mishandled.

Several bodies – some stored as long as 15 years – were found at a mortuary connected to the Pueblo County coroner.

Multiple decomposing bodies were discovered behind a hidden door in a Pueblo funeral home run by the county coroner during an annual inspection, state officials said.