Embattled Pueblo County coroner Brian Cotter is facing calls for resignation from state and local officials while investigators say the criminal investigation into 20 decomposing bodies found at his mortuary this week could take “a significant amount of time.”

Cotter has not resigned from his elected position and has not been arrested, officials from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Pueblo County district attorney and sheriff’s offices said at a Friday afternoon news conference.

State inspectors found at least 20 decaying bodies in a hidden room at Davis Mortuary in Pueblo during an annual inspection on Wednesday, and Cotter admitted some of the corpses had been there for 15 years and he may have given families fake ashes.

Gov. Jared Polis and Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucer

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