FUNERAL HOME OWNER FACING SENTENCING FOR CORPSE ABUSE AFTER STORING DECAYING BODIES. (PHOTO)

 Funeral home owner facing sentencing for corpse abuse after storing decaying bodies

It has been two years since authorities discovered nearly 200 decaying bodies inside a room-temperature, bug-infested building in rural Colorado. On Friday, Jon Hallford, the funeral home owner responsible, is scheduled to be sentenced in state court on 191 counts of corpse abuse.

Hallford and his wife, Carie, operated Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs for four years, misleading families by claiming they were properly handling cremations while secretly storing bodies in deteriorating conditions. Instead of returning authentic ashes, they provided concrete-like substitutes to grieving families. Jon Hallford is already serving a federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to fraud charges; Friday’s hearing addresses state-level charges for the mistreatment of human remains. Families will have an opportunity to share the anguish of discovering their loved ones had been left to decompose among others.

A plea deal recommends a 20-year prison sentence for Hallford, but some families are urging Judge Eric Bentley to reject it, concerned that the state sentence would run concurrently with his federal sentence, potentially shortening his time in prison. Tanya Wilson, whose mother’s remains were among those stored at the facility, called for accountability, saying, “The scale of this is staggering. Why does the state believe they deserve a plea deal?” If the agreement is rejected, the case could proceed to an arraignment and ultimately a criminal trial.

Colorado has long struggled to regulate funeral homes effectively, with the state having some of the weakest oversight in the country. The Hallfords are accused of letting 189 bodies decay, burying some incorrectly, and leaving four remains unidentified. Their business began in 2017, and bodies reportedly began piling up by 2019. Many corpses were found in advanced states of decay, some unclothed or lying in fluids.

During the same period, the couple defrauded the federal government of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, using the money and payments from families to purchase luxury items including high-end jewelry, vehicles, cryptocurrency, and body sculpting treatments. In 2023, authorities were alerted to the stench from the building and discovered the decaying remains. The Hallfords were arrested in Oklahoma more than a month later.

The discovery devastated families, who realized that the moments of grief they had relied on—cremating or spreading ashes—had been corrupted. Some had nightmares imagining the state of their loved ones’ remains, while others feared their relatives’ souls were trapped. Crystina Page, for instance, requested to personally witness her son’s proper cremation, and Wilson’s family later cremated her mother’s remains once recovered.

Carie Hallford also pleaded guilty to the same federal fraud charges and faces sentencing in December, while Jon Hallford has appealed his federal sentence. The state proceedings on corpse abuse will continue to determine accountability for the horrific mistreatment of the bodies.