Remains brought to El Paso County Coroner’s Office as investigation continues into Penrose funeral home
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The El Paso County Coroner’s Office confirms they are assisting Fremont County as the fallout continues from the ongoing criminal investigation linked to a funeral home.
Now, multiple agencies are working together to mitigate the possible hazardous situation.
Large refrigerated trucks pulled up at the El Paso County Coroner’s Office in Colorado Springs Tuesday morning, containing at least 7 bodies tied to that massive investigation; several more bodies have arrived since then, in trucks from the Fremont County Coroner's Office and escorted by state troopers.
In a statement, El Paso County Coroner Leon Kelly confirms that his office will be assisting the Fremont County coroner, Randy Keller, in the recovery, examination, and identification of the human remains.
Over the next few weeks, the El Paso County Coroner's Office will be receiving and examining the remains with the goal of identifying the individuals and releasing them to their families.
Additionally, the Colorado State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) is sending resources to Fremont County today after the situation was verbally declared a disaster emergency by the Governor of Colorado on Oct. 5; the resources sent will include extra staffing and additional security.
Some of the bodies also began arriving at the Douglas County Coroner's Office Tuesday.
Kelly has declined to be interviewed on the situation, and KRDO is waiting on a response from Keller and the Colorado Joint Information Center, which is handling media requests for the state and Fremont County.
A privacy fence was installed around the area where the bodies were brought in.
The center issued a release Tuesday morning, stating that it would provide no details about the response and recovery work, and also declared that it would not release further updates until all bodies have been removed from the funeral home.
In his release, Kelly asked for the public's support in "playing it real cool and staying safe for the foreseeable future," apparently in hopes of limiting the possibility of additional local death investigations.
"By operating under our mass fatality protocols, there should be no disruption to normal El Paso County Services," he wrote.
It's unclear how many bodies will be brought to El Paso and Douglas counties, or how many will remain in Fremont County; shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said that there was an unspecified delay in transporting bodies to El Paso County but the process continued with the day's last apparent transport at around 4 p.m.
The operation is expected to contunue Wednesday.
