- - Ex-Colorado funeral home owner cuts plea deal in case involving improperly stored corpses

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY August 5, 2025 at 12:11 AM

One of two former owners of a Colorado funeral home found guilty of abusing corpses has taken a federal plea deal on a wire fraud charge, multiple news organizations reported.

Carie and Jon Hallford, who operated Return to Nature Funeral Home, faced both state and federal charges in connection with the gruesome case in which authorities discovered nearly 200 decomposing bodies at their Penrose, Colorado, facility, CBS News and other news outlets reported.

The couple, who had pleaded guilty to 190 counts of corpse abuse, are being tried separately, according to CBS. With the deal, Carie Hallford admitted to defrauding clients and cheating the federal government out of more than $882,000 by lying to the U.S. Small Business Administration in loan applications, the reported.

A plea deal made by Carie Hallford in 2024 was rejected by a judge, the news agency said, adding that she faces up to 20 years behind bars as part of her new deal. But federal prosecutors have said they will push for a 15-year sentence.

For the families whose loved ones were affected, that was not nearly enough.

“My son lay in the corner of an inoperable refrigerator for 4 years with rats and maggots eating his body and his face,” one mother told CBS News. “Twenty years doesn't begin to count for justice, even for my sole son."

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The investigation began in October 2023 after residents and business owners reported a foul stench near the facility. Authorities ultimately discovered the remains of about 190 corpses improperly stored inside, in various stages of decomposition. Some had been kept there for as long as four years.

The Return to Nature facility was demolished last year after the Environmental Protection Agency declared it full of biohazards.

Former funeral home owners 'misled customers' as part of fraud scheme

The funeral home advertised “green” natural burials free of metal caskets or embalming chemicals. Prosecutors said the Hallfords lied to families across the country by not providing cremations or burials as promised, despite charging more than $130,000 for the services.

Instead of ashes, prosecutors said the Hallfords gave families urns filled with dry concrete mix and, in at least two instances, buried bodies in error.

"As part of their fraud scheme, the Hallfords misled customers of the funeral home into believing that the remains of their loved ones would be buried or cremated per their wishes and the terms of the parties’ contracts,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said in a news release in October 2024.

Jon Hallford falsely blamed the odor on his taxidermy hobby after the corpses were discovered, investigators said. The Hallfords then absconded to Oklahoma but were arrested in November 2023.

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In April 2024, the couple was accused of fraudulently collecting pandemic relief funds for Return to Nature by falsely claiming that Jon Hallford owed back child support and that the business was uninvolved in criminal activity at the time of their application. The Hallfords used the nearly $900,000 for personal rather than business purposes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Jon Hallford was sentenced in June to 20 years on wire fraud charges and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The couple had been originally indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In August 2024, a judge ordered the Hallfords to pay nearly $1 billion to families who sued the couple in a civil suit. Both have yet to be sentenced on state charges for abuse of a corpse.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Corpse abuse: Colorado funeral home owner cuts federal plea deal

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