A Colorado funeral home owner who handed grieving families fake ashes while secretly storing 189 decomposing bodies has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, Jon Hallford, co-owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, was convicted on nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse. His then-wife, Carie Hallford, also co-owned the business and faces similar charges.
On Oct. 4, 2023, authorities uncovered 189 deteriorating bodies inside a Colorado building where they had been hidden since 2019. Investigators found that Hallford and his wife had deceived families by giving them fake ashes. The couple later admitted to defrauding the federal government of almost $900,000 in pandemic relief funds meant for small businesses.
The pair were arrested in November and formally charged soon after. Officials revealed they had also pocketed nearly $130,000 paid by clients for cremation services, while splurging on luxury vehicles, laser body-sculpting treatments, and Tiffany’s jewelry.
Surveillance footage from September 2023 showed Hallford flipping a man’s body from a gurney onto the floor. He later texted his wife, saying, “while I was making the transfer, I got people juice on me.”
The scale and severity of the abuse prompted changes to Colorado’s historically lax funeral home regulations.
At Hallford’s sentencing, victims’ family members labeled him a “monster” and pushed for the maximum 50-year sentence. The judge had previously turned down a plea deal that would have capped his time at 20 years.
Hallford apologized during sentencing, saying he would live with regret for the rest of his life.
“I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said. “My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”
Hallford’s former wife, Carie, is scheduled to be sentenced on Apr. 24. She is facing between 25 and 35 years in prison.
