Jon and Cari Hallford owned the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado. Since 2019, the couple began storing 190 bodies inside a building without electricity. They gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes. The Hallford couple have pleaded guilty to corpse abuse charges, previously pleading guilty to defrauding customers.
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The rotting bodies were discovered after several reports of a foul smell that came from the building where they were stored. Prosecutor Rachael Powell detailed the state in which authorities found the bodies in court. "The bodies were contained in disposable body bags, wrapped in sheets and duct tape, partially wrapped in sheets, wrapped in plastic garbage bags and duct tape, or exposed with no covering at all," Powell said, according to CBS News. "Some were even stuffed into plastic totes."
"The bodies were lying on the ground, stacked on shelves, left on gurneys, stacked on top of each other, or just piled in rooms," Powell continued. The gruesome details of the bodies left the families of the deceased extremely enraged. Outside the courtroom, Crystina Page, mother of David who died in 2019, addressed the situation.
"He laid in the corner of an inoperable fridge, dumped out of his body bag with rats and maggots eating his face for four years," Page said about her son's body, according to The Mirror. "Now every moment that I think of my son, I'm having to think of Jon and Carie, and that's not going away."
The Hallford couple pleaded guilty to corpse abuse on Friday, November 22, 2024.
Conspiracy To Commit Fraud
Besides defrauding their customers over the years, the Hallford couple also received a $900,000 COVID-19 pandemic relief fund. This money, according to court records and reported by the New York Post, was misspent. The Hallford couple instead bought fancy cars, laser body sculpting, trips, and even cryptocurrency investments. They pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a plea agreement.
Their plea agreement involves the dismissal of charges such as theft, forgery, and money laundering. They have also agreed to pay restitution to the victims. Moreover, prosecutors would only request 15 years in prison under the agreement.
Six victims asked to address the court. They disagree with the limited time that Jon and Cari Hallford would spend in prison. The sentence hearing for the Hallford couple is set for April 18, 2025.
