Funeral Home Owner Admits Sending Families Fake Ashes
A Colorado funeral home operator has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges after authorities discovered nearly 200 decomposing bodies improperly stored in her facility. Carie Hallford, who operated Return to Nature Funeral Home with her husband, Jon Hallford, admitted Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a plea agreement.
Federal prosecutors say the Hallfords defrauded the U.S. Small Business Administration of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds and misled customers who paid for cremation services that were never carried out. Instead of cremating bodies between 2019 and 2023, the couple allegedly stored them in a deteriorating building and sent clients containers filled with dry concrete instead of ashes. Investigators say the Hallfords pocketed approximately $130,000 from those fraudulent cremation and burial transactions.
Carie Hallford faces up to 20 years in prison, although prosecutors have agreed to recommend a 15-year sentence.
In a separate state case, both Carie and Jon Hallford face 191 counts of abuse of a corpse. Jon Hallford has already pleaded guilty to those charges, which include instances of burying the wrong body and allowing remains to decay for years. Authorities discovered the bodies in 2023 in a Penrose, Colorado facility, two hours south of Denver, where investigators reported unsanitary conditions, including stacked remains, insect infestations, and bodily fluids leaking across the floor.
Grieving families have since learned that the ashes they received were not those of their loved ones, many of whom had been left to decompose for up to four years.
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