Owners of a Colorado funeral home were accused of stacking 190 bodies inside a room-temperature building and giving fake remains to grieving relatives on Friday, as affected families looked on in court. Pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse.
According to the indictment, John and Carey Hallford, who own Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in a dilapidated building near Colorado Springs in 2019, including cremated remains. The family was given dry concrete instead.
Last year's horrifying discovery forever changed the family's grieving process.
Prosecutors say the Hallfords lived a lavish lifestyle for many years.
They used customers' money and about $900,000 in pandemic relief funds to buy laser body engravings, luxury cars, trips to Las Vegas and Florida, $31,000 in virtual currency and other luxuries, according to court records. It is said that he did.
The Hallfords pleaded guilty last month to federal fraud charges in an agreement in which they admitted to defrauding customers and the federal government.
The two have been charged in state court with more than 200 charges, including abuse of a corpse, theft, forgery and money laundering.
John Holford, who is representing the public defender, has not commented on the case. Carrie Hallford's attorney, Michael Studzinski, declined to comment.
For four years, Return to Nature's customers have scattered what they thought were the ashes of their loved ones in meaningful locations, sometimes miles away by plane.
Some took their urns with them on cross-continental road trips, while others held them securely at home.
The bodies, which prosecutors say were improperly stored, were discovered last year when neighbors reported a foul odor coming from a building in Penrose, a small town southwest of Colorado Springs.
Authorities found bodies folded one on top of the other, some infested with insects. Some of the bodies were so decayed that they could no longer be seen with the naked eye.
The building was so toxic that responders had to wear hazardous materials and were only able to remain inside the building for a short time.
The discovery of the bodies at Return to Nature prompted state lawmakers to tighten regulations for funeral homes, some of the loosest in the country.
Unlike most states, Colorado did not require regular inspections of funeral homes or certification of business qualifications.
This year, lawmakers brought Colorado's regulations in line with most other states, largely with support from the funeral home industry.
