The owners of a Colorado funeral home have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for allegedly misusing nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds while engaging in shocking practices, including storing 190 decaying bodies and providing grieving families with fake ashes. Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, entered their pleas on Thursday, each admitting to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
As part of their plea agreement, the Hallfords have accepted responsibility for defrauding both the government and their customers. Prosecutors will recommend a sentence of no more than 15 years in prison, pending judicial approval of the agreement. The timing of this approval remains uncertain.
The Hallfords faced multiple charges, including 15 federal offenses related to defrauding the U.S. government and over 200 criminal counts in Colorado state court, such as corpse abuse and forgery. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff confirmed that the Hallfords' guilty pleas included acknowledgment of their fraudulent activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to court documents, the Hallfords misappropriated pandemic aid and customers' payments to finance a lavish lifestyle, which included purchasing luxury vehicles valued at over $120,000, indulging in laser body sculpting, and taking trips to California, Florida, and Las Vegas. They also invested $31,000 in cryptocurrency and bought luxury items from high-end retailers like Gucci and Tiffany & Co.
The federal indictment followed the alarming discovery of 190 corpses in a bug-infested facility owned by Return to Nature in Penrose, a town located southwest of Colorado Springs. Allegations emerged that the Hallfords had stored bodies improperly since at least 2019, at times stacking them on top of one another. In some instances, they reportedly buried the wrong bodies.
An investigation revealed that the Hallfords may have sent families fake ashes and forged cremation records. Reports indicated that the contents of some bags claimed to hold cremated remains were actually dry concrete.
The revelation of these practices has devastated families, who learned that their loved ones' remains were not in the ashes they had received. This scandal prompted Colorado lawmakers to strengthen funeral home regulations in 2024, implementing routine inspections and requiring licensing for funeral home roles.
In court, Crystina Page, who lost her son in 2019, spoke out about the Hallfords' actions, expressing that the plea deal fell short of true justice. She described the horrifying condition of her son’s body while in the funeral home’s care, stating, “My son was one of those victims; he lost 60% of his body weight. Rats and maggots ate his face.”
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