The owner of a Colorado funeral home is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a scheme involving nearly 190 decomposing bodies and the distribution of fake ashes to grieving families. Jon Hallford, who operated the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, admitted to defrauding clients by taking payments for cremations that never occurred and misrepresenting the remains returned to families.
From 2019 through 2023, Hallford and his wife, Carie Hallford, allegedly stored bodies without proper preservation in a building plagued by unsanitary conditions. In several cases, families were given ashes that turned out to be materials like dry concrete. Some were even provided with remains that didn’t belong to their loved ones. Authorities discovered the full extent of the operation after numerous complaints and a subsequent investigation revealed the bodies piled in various states of decay.
Prosecutors say the Hallfords also misused nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds and client payments to fund a lifestyle that included luxury vehicles, designer purchases, cosmetic treatments, and cryptocurrency investments. Federal authorities are recommending a 15-year prison sentence for Jon Hallford, who faces a maximum of 20 years.
Carie Hallford has also pleaded guilty to the federal charges and awaits a separate trial on state-level charges, including 191 counts of abuse of a corpse. Jon Hallford is expected to be sentenced for those state charges later this summer.
