The McCoy Family Funeral Home in Windsor lost its state license in October after state regulators alleged the business was using subcontractors for services without telling clients. State regulators also alleged in disciplinary documents that the business was registered at a residence and “does not have appropriate equipment or personnel to adequately provide the funeral services it contracts to provide.”
The business served Boulder, Weld and Larimer counties, according to the website. The "directions" page on the funeral home's website doesn't list an address for the business. Instead, it displays a map centered on a dentist office in Windsor. The business says it offers "everything from simple cremations to full-service funerals and memorials."
Regulators alleged no funeral services were being provided to the public at the registered business address.
Records show business owner Annette McCoy didn’t attend a July hearing about the allegations and didn’t file a response to the charges before Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies decided to revoke her business license on October 24.
The funeral home's license was suspended in May following an investigation initiated by a complaint about the business. Records do not reveal the nature of the original complaint.
“Respondent's failure to appear at the (hearing) on July 7, 2023, demonstrates a lack of interest in maintaining its registration to provide services as a funeral establishment in the State of Colorado,” an administrative law judge wrote during the disciplinary proceedings.
McCoy told KUNC News Tuesday she missed that hearing because she stepped away from the business at the time to care for a sick relative. She also said she disputes the state’s allegation she wasn’t disclosing her use of subcontractors.
“That is not true because if you use a subcontractor, if you use any type of outside service to do your cremation, you have to have the client sign the cremation form that belongs to that crematory for liability purposes,” she said.
McCoy said she does use subcontractors for services, but that clients are told about the arrangements via those liability forms.
"Independent funeral homes generally help each other because so many of the funeral homes now, or funeral services, cremation businesses, whatever it is—there are very few left that are not major corporations," she said.
McCoy said she is considering an appeal.
“I’m trying to weed through what happened at the moment, and why,” she said. “I am doing everything I can to rectify this.”
State regulators allege McCoy broke a section of the state’s Mortuary Science Code that says it is unlawful to “engage in willfully dishonest conduct or commit negligence in the practice of embalming, funeral directing, or providing for final disposition that defrauds or causes injury or is likely to defraud or cause injury.”
Regulators also claim a copy of her funeral contract they reviewed “does not include written notice to consumers specifying any subcontractors or agents routinely handling or caring for human remains.”
