Colorado woman learns late husband is among remains found in mortuary investigation

Three weeks since state investigators discovered more than two dozen bodies hidden inside a Pueblo-area mortuary business, a window is realizing her worst nightmare. 

"This is agonizing pain," Patty Emerson told CBS Colorado.

After more than 14 years of mourning the loss of her husband, Mel Emerson, to liver cancer, Patty says investigators positively identified his body as one of the decomposing bodies found inside Davis Mortuary, the business run by the former Pueblo County coroner. 

"It's almost like losing him all over again," Patty explained. "My kids are having to deal with this all over again."

Earlier this week, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said four of the 24 bodies had been identified. 

"I still just don't know how this could have happened," Patty said. "There's nothing anybody can say that will make it understandable to somebody going through this."

Patty first spoke with CBS Colorado after learning Brian Cotter and his brother's business, Davis Mortuary, was under investigation after the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) conducted an inspection of the facility. 

"I have known Mr. Cotter since the early 1980s. I worked at Parkview Medical Center, then in the pathology department," Patty said. "We knew the morticians, and Brian and his brother were both very, very nice, kind people, (and) seemed to be very upstanding citizens."

Patty Emerson was already starting to fear the reality that her husband's cremated remains were never given to her after speaking with other people who used Cotter's services. 

"There were several people that posted photos of their certificates and their metal tags from several years [ago], even before my husband had passed away," Patty said. "So I started to kind of get a sick feeling about that. Like why didn't he give me that certification and that identification number?"

Earlier this week, investigators contacted Patty an confirmed Mel's body had been located.

"My husband was actually at the El Paso County Coroner's Office, but it was somebody from Fremont County who had processed his remains," Patty learned. "Our fingerprints are in the system because we have done foster care over the years, and we had to be fingerprinted. (Luckily) those were in the database, and they were able to do it with the fingerprints."

"That's how well preserved he was, which amazed me after 14 and a half years," Patty added. 

It's a new feeling of loss that has also, in a way, given Patty some sense of peace. 

"I knew immediately then that whatever I had on my fireplace mantel could never be confirmed as my husband," Patty said. "Then, I realized, the only way I would know for sure that what I end up with is my husband is if he was found in that room."

Patty is now working with a new funeral home to honor her husband the way he should've been. 

"The funeral director that's been working with me, he's who transported my husband. He was able to have visualization of different identifiers, and so I'm very confident that is my husband," Patty said. Now, I'm just waiting. They can't go forward with any cremation or anything like that until they have the new death certificates issued, and they were telling me that could take up to two weeks, possibly."

This time, however, Patty plans to be at every step of the process

"My biggest thing was a lot of mortuaries, I'd heard, don't agree to let you be there, like when they bring your loved one in, and that was my main thing," Patty said. "I didn't care where I had to go, but that was something that I was gonna insist on because I don't want anything messed up this time around."

With Patty's questions answered, more families are still left waiting to learn what happened to their loved one in the care of the Cotters. 

"They deserve to be in prison for what they have done to this community, and to the people that we entrusted them with to care for lovingly, and with dignity, and with respect," Patty said. "Our loved ones are more than a discarded body that somebody didn't care for and put in a storage room somewhere. That is not who my husband is."