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Colorado funeral home stockpiled bodies for 4 years and gave families fake remains

Published:Wednesday | November 8, 2023 | 7:47 PM
A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, October 5, 2023. A family filed a lawsuit Monday, October 30, against the Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were found alleging that the owners, a husband and wife, allowed the remains of their loved ones and to “rot” away while they sent families fake ashes. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP, File)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) — The owner of a Colorado funeral home and his wife were arrested Wednesday in Oklahoma on charges linked to the discovery of 190 sets of decaying remains at one of their facilities, including some that apparently had been languishing there for four years.

Investigators entered the Return to Nature Funeral Home building in the Rocky Mountain town of Penrose in early October to find "abhorrent" conditions with dozens of stacked bodies, according to a federal affidavit that's under seal in Colorado but available in Oklahoma.

Some bodies had 2019 death dates, according to the document.

"Law enforcement now knows the cremains each family was given could not have been their loved one," reads the documents alleging funeral home owners Jon and Carie Hallford had fled Colorado to avoid prosecution.

The Hallfords were jailed in Oklahoma on $2 million bond on suspicion of four felonies — abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery — after their arrest in Wagoner, east of Tulsa.

They couldn't be reached for comment and didn't have attorneys listed in jail records. Neither has a listed personal phone number, and the funeral home's number no longer works.

During a news conference in Colorado Springs announcing the charges, District Attorney Michael Allen said authorities wouldn't be releasing many details in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation. But he said the charging documents, which are sealed, contain information that is "absolutely shocking."

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