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.

Law enforcement officials hosted a press conference Aug. 21 to discuss findings in the ongoing criminal investigation into the Pueblo County Coroner.

DENVER (AP) — State inspectors in Colorado found about 20 decomposing bodies behind a hidden door in a funeral home owned by a county coroner, who told them he may have given fake ashes to next of kin who sought cremations, authorities disclosed Thursday.