A Colorado coroner accused of hiding bodies for up to 15 years inside the mortuary he operates is under criminal investigation after state officials found nearly two dozen corpses hidden in a sealed room during an annual inspection this week.

The privately owned funeral home and mortuary run by Pueblo Coroner Brian Cotter was suspended after state inspectors found the decomposing bodies at his private office in the city of Pueblo, just over 100 miles south of Denver, the state's capital.

Inspectors from the office of Funeral Homes and Mortuary Science Services within the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) found the bodies on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at Davis Mortuary.

On Thursday, Aug. 21, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Director Armando Saldate called it "a deeply disturbing and tragic situation."

"We have received credible information that Davis Mortuary has been improperly storing human remains for years," Saldate told reporters during a news conference. "This is a profound violation of trust and a heartbreaking betrayal of the families who entrusted their loved ones to this funeral home."

USA TODAY has reached out to Cotter. It was not immediately known whether he had obtained an attorney.

Here's what to know about the case.

Which funeral home had corpses hidden?

Davis Mortuary is under investigation, state officials said.

The funeral home and mortuary are located on Broadway Avenue in the city of Pueblo, where, as of the 2020 U.S. Census, just over 110,000 people lived.

Who is Brian Cotter?

Cotter, a three-term Republican county coroner, was first sworn into office in 2015, meaning some of the allegedly improperly stored bodies were already in the mortuary prior to his first election in 2014, according to DORA.

Davis Mortuary is where multiple local and state agencies claimed Cotter kept decomposed bodies behind hidden doors for years.

Resident Veronica Molin said her family members should have been taken care of by the funeral home.

"I woke up crying," Molin told the Pueblo Chieftain, part of the USA TODAY Network. "I want to be buried in the ground with my mother and I want to know whose ashes I have. It breaks my heart. We entrusted a lot of our family members to this place: my grandma, my grandpa, my auntie, my uncle, and my mother. It breaks my heart ... do we really have their ashes?"

What is Colorado coroner Brian Cotter accused of?

DORA reported that Cotter allegedly admitted to state inspectors that some of the bodies he was hiding had been in the secret room for up to 15 years.

Officials said he also admitted some decedents' families may have been given fake cremains.

How many bodies were found at the funeral home?

As of Thursday, Aug. 21, at least 20 decomposing corpses had been discovered.

When inspectors entered Davis Mortuary, they smelled a strong odor of decomposition and found a door hidden by a cardboard display, officials said.

What agency is handling the Pueblo coroner case?

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation.

Contributing: Zach Hillstrom with the USA TODAY Network

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where is Davis Mortuary? Who is Brian Cotter? More about coroner accused of hiding bodies

Reporting by Natalie Neysa Alund and Justin Reutter, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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