By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press/Report for America
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a Colorado funeral home accused of piling 190 bodies inside a room-temperature building and giving the grieving relatives fake ashes pleaded guilty Friday to corpse abuse as aggrieved families looked on in court.
Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in a decrepit building near Colorado Springs as far back as 2019 and gave families dry concrete in place of cremated remains, according to the charges. The grim discovery last year upended families’ grieving processes.
Over the years, the Hallfords spent extravagantly, prosecutors say. They used customers’ money and nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds to buy laser body sculpting, fancy cars, trips to Las Vegas and Florida, $31,000 in cryptocurrency and other luxury items, according to court records.
FILE – This combination of booking photos provided by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff’s Office shows Jon Hallford, left, and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
Last month, the Hallfords pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in an agreement in which they acknowledged defrauding customers and the federal government. The two have been charged with more than 200 charges of corpse abuse, theft, forgery and money laundering in state court.
Jon Hallford is represented by the public defenders office, which does not comment on cases. Carie Hallford’s attorney, Michael Stuzynski, declined to comment.
Over four years, customers of Return to Nature spread what they thought were their loves ones’ ashes in meaningful locations, sometimes a plane’s flight away. Others carried their urns on cross-country road trips or held them tight at home.
The bodies, which prosecutors say were improperly stored, were discovered last year when neighbors reported a stench coming from a building in the small town of Penrose, southwest of Colorado Springs.
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Authorities found bodies stacked atop each other, some swarming with insects. Among them were remains too decayed for visual identification. The building was so toxic that responders had to wear hazmat gear and could remain inside only for brief periods.
The discovery of the bodies at Return to Nature prompted state legislators to strengthen what had been among the laxest funeral home regulations in the country. Unlike most states, Colorado didn’t require routine inspections of funeral homes or credentials for the businesses’ operators.
This year, lawmakers brought Colorado’s regulations up to par with most other states, largely with support from the funeral home industry.
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.