“Don’t Die in Colorado”: Family Struggles to Retrieve Father’s Remains

“Don’t Die in Colorado”: Family Struggles to Retrieve Father’s Remains

OTERO COUNTY, Colo. (KKTV) – A family in southern Colorado is facing a heartbreaking struggle, trying to secure funds to retrieve their father’s body more than two months after his death.

Mary Nystrom and her sister, Jessica Cunningham, have been tirelessly fundraising for a month following the death of their father, Dennis Larney, who passed away at the end of May. Larney’s body was initially handled by the Otero County coroner’s office, where Coroner Bob Fowler determined the cause and manner of death. However, due to the office’s lack of storage facilities, Larney’s remains were transferred to Bellwood Ustick Funeral Home in Rocky Ford.

A Daughter’s Grief

Nystrom recalls her father fondly, sharing memories of their time together. “I remember him taking us to the park when we were little,” she said. “He had the funniest laugh. . . he was a good man.” The family’s grief was compounded when their application for burial assistance through Medicaid was denied.

“We thought Medicaid would help us with burial assistance for his cremation, and he’s still in the cooler at the funeral home,” Nystrom said. “He deserves to be laid to rest and I feel like I can’t grieve properly without this closure or getting his ashes back, so it’s been really hard.”

Seeking Help

In her desperation, Nystrom turned to social media for help, where Crystina Page responded. Page, whose son was found in the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose in October, now runs the nonprofit Colorado Remembers, which aids victims of the death care industry. “And in a case like this, where nobody’s able to pay and nobody can tell us what will happen with Mr. Larney, it opens up the potential for there to be other victims,” Page said.

Page has been involved in multiple cases, advocating for changes in how remains are handled in Colorado. “We talk all the time amongst our families about, ‘don’t die in Colorado,’” Page remarked, referring to the state’s previous lack of regulations in the funeral industry.

Gaps in the System

Page believes that while there may not be intentional negligence in Larney’s case, there are significant gaps in the laws meant to support families like Nystrom’s. Colorado has an indigent care program aimed at helping low-income individuals, but Nystrom was denied funds from this source. Typically, a county coroner would have access to funds for unclaimed or indigent bodies, but Otero County lacks a public administrator to facilitate this process.

“This particular family wants to do a cremation,” Fowler explained, “and it’s just a difficult task at this time, without any kind of program to help them fund that cremation for the family.” Fowler noted that smaller, rural offices like his often struggle to secure necessary resources. While Nystrom’s case is a first in his 45 years as a coroner, Fowler fears the growing indigent population may lead to more such issues in the future.

Legislative Efforts

Rep. Matt Soper, who has been instrumental in passing laws to reform the funeral industry in Colorado, acknowledged the systemic issues. “If you go back in time, in 2019, $1,500 going to $2,500 was what we were debating,” Soper said, referring to the burial assistance fund. “With high inflation, it’s time to reconsider those amounts.”

Soper highlighted the challenge of resource accessibility in rural areas. “That’s a problem with almost everything we do at the state level for rural areas,” Soper explained. “The state kind of forgets that there may not be the resources locally to actually apply and fill out the forms necessary to access those funds.”

A Call for Reform

Soper believes that Nystrom’s situation could prompt legislative action. “This is definitely one of those stories that I guarantee will prompt some reform at the state level,” he said. Fowler expressed his support for such efforts, saying, “I’m all in favor of that, and I’d be more than willing to serve on whatever committee the state would want to set up in order to get this taken care of.”

Nystrom hopes her story will lead to meaningful change, preventing others from experiencing the same pain. “I don’t want them to hurt like how me and my sister have been hurting these past couple of months,” she said.

If you’d like to donate to help her family, you can find the GoFundMe here.