Colorado funeral home owners 'let 190 bodies decay on each other and gave concrete instead of ashes'

Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in a decrepit building, and gave families dry concrete in place of cremated remains

The owners of a Colorado funeral home who let 190 bodies decay on top of dead corpses and gave grieving families concrete instead of ashes have pleaded guilty to corpse abuse.

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.

Plea deals reached between the defendants and prosecutors call for Jon Hallford to receive a 20-year prison sentence and Carie Hallford to receive 15 to 20 years in prison. Over the years, the Hallfords spent extravagantly, prosecutors say. They used customers’ money and nearly £700,000 in pandemic relief funds to buy laser body sculpting, fancy cars, trips to Las Vegas and Florida, $31,000 (£24,740) in cryptocurrency and other luxury items, according to court records.

Even as the couple lived large, prosecutors said the bodies at their funeral home were decomposing. “The bodies were laying on the ground, stacked on shelves, left on gurneys, stacked on top of each other or just piled in rooms,” prosecutor Rachael Powell said.

She said the family members of the bodies that were discovered “have been intensely and forever outraged.” The Hallfords each pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse for 189 bodies that were found decaying and two instances of the wrong bodies being buried.

The also agreed to pay restitution, with the amount yet to be determined. Additional charges of theft, forgery and money laundering would be dismissed under the agreements. Sentencing was set for April 18.

Six people with objections to the plea agreements had asked prior to Friday’s hearing to address the court. They considered the length of the sentences under the plea deal insufficient given the Hallfords’ conduct, prosecutors said. Judge Eric Bentley said they would get a chance to speak prior to the sentencings. If the judge rejects the plea agreement, the Hallfords would be able to withdraw their guilty pleas and go to trial.

At the close of Friday’s hearing, Bentley revoked a bond that had allowed Carie Hallford to remain free while the case was pending. She was handcuffed in the courtroom while family members of the deceased applauded. Jon Hallford already was in custody, and was in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffed for the hearing.