Judge to weigh plea deal of funeral home owner accused of stashing decaying bodies
The owner of a Colorado funeral home accused of hiding nearly 190 decomposing bodies in a bug-infested building took a plea deal last year for abusing the corpses, but on Monday, the deceased’s family members will say the 15 to 20 year sentence in the deal is not enough.
Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford, owned Return to Nature Funeral Home and are accused of piling bodies into the building in a rural town between 2019 and 2023, giving families fake ashes and defrauding the federal government of nearly $900,000.
Families, who thought they had honored their loved ones’ wishes by cremating them, learned that the remains of their son, husband or mother were not in the urn or in the ashes they ceremonially spread, but languished with nearly 190 other bodies.
The scene inside the building in Penrose, Colorado, about a two-hour drive south of Denver, was horrific, officials said. Decay fluid covered the ground, insects swarmed, and bodies were piled on top of each other in various states of decomposition – some had been there for four years.
Last year, Jon and Carie Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse, but state District Judge Eric Bentley rejected Jon Hallford’s plea deal in August after the victims argued the sentence was too lenient. After this, Jon Hallford withdrew his guilty plea and his trial is scheduled.
Now Carie Hallford’s plea deal will face objections from victims. It is not yet clear whether the judge will accept or reject the deal on Monday or at a later date.
Both Hallfords also admitted in federal court to defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration of nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief and to accepting payments from customers for cremations that the funeral home never did. Officials said the two men spent lavishly, purchasing a GMC Yukon, laser body sculpting, vacations, jewelry and cryptocurrency.
After pleading guilty in federal court, Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Carie Hallford’s sentencing in the federal case is scheduled for December.
