The husband-and-wife owners of a Colorado funeral home are facing 260 criminal charges after being accused of abandoning nearly 200 decomposing bodies and funneling customers’ money into luxury cars and cryptocurrency. .
John and Carrie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, horrified police when 190 bodies were found dead. discovered In a room where “human decomposition fluids and insects lined the floor” daily mail report.
Investigators said they found “abhorrent conditions” when they searched the property in October following complaints from neighbors about the “smell of dead animals.”
Relatives who paid the couple $1,290 with the promise of an environmentally friendly cremation service and a tree planted in their loved one’s memory were allegedly given concrete powder instead of ashes.
In Thursday’s court proceedings, FBI agents revealed that the Hallfords allegedly used the funds to buy two cars worth $120,000, as well as virtual currency and “fancy dinners,” the newspaper reported. It was detailed that it was discovered.
The Hallfords face hundreds of charges, including forgery, theft, money laundering and abuse of a corpse, but neither has yet entered a plea.
In addition to the funeral home, the couple stored bodies in a building in the nearby rural town of Penrose, prosecutors said.
After launching in 2017, Hallford’s company quickly faced financial difficulties. At the time of the raid, the funeral home owed more than $120,000 in unpaid bills and had been taken to court “repeatedly” over unpaid wages and disputes with a local medical center. daily mail report.
At Carrie Hallford’s previous hearing, prosecutors presented text messages showing the couple trying to cover up financial troubles by moving a body to Penrose’s crime scene.
Angelica Steadman was heartbroken to hear the news, but she still doesn’t know what happened to her 24-year-old daughter’s body after she asked Return to Nature to cremate it.
So far, the identity of the daughter who died among the bodies rotting inside the funeral home and the Penrose facility has not been confirmed.
“If they had done what they were supposed to do, they still would have made a good profit,” Stedman said after hearing court testimony.
Other relatives of loved ones left in the Hallfords’ care say the couple ignored the allegations.
When the family of U.S. Army veteran Tanya Wilson received the remains believed to be hers, her brother Elliott told Carrie Hallford that the remains seemed too heavy to be her sister’s. .
Elliott took them to another funeral home, who said, “I’ve never seen anything like that within the range of what you would normally expect cremated remains to look like.” ” he is said to have said.
Two other families who allegedly received fake ashes found that when they mixed the dust with water, it hardened like concrete.
Samantha Naranjo discovered her grandmother’s body had been abandoned for more than a year.
“I’m anxious,” she said. Said KRDO in November after the Hallfords’ arrests. “I understand the pain and suffering of her grandmother. It is indescribable. [can] Do people do this when they are most vulnerable? ”
John Hallford was released from the El Paso County Jail on $100,000 bail in late January, while Carey remains in custody on the same $100,000 bond. Her arraignment is scheduled for March 21.
