Funeral home co-owner sentenced in expansive corpse scheme
Funeral home co-owner sentenced in expansive corpse scheme
Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY Sat, April 25, 2026 at 5:37 PM UTC
0
A Colorado funeral home co-owner was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in a scheme that involved hiding nearly 200 decomposing bodies, prosecutors announced.
On April 24, local prosecutors said a state district court judge sentenced Carie Hallford, 49, months after she and her then-husband, Jon Hallford, separately pleaded guilty to state charges for the scheme involving corpse abuse and fraud. The two also have federal prison sentences for defrauding families and a COVID-19 relief program.
The two owned Return to Nature Funeral Home, based in Colorado Springs. Prosecutors said the Hallfords improperly stored at least 189 decomposing bodies between 2019 and 2023. They ran a scheme — collecting more than $130,000 in fees — in which they marketed burial services that included purportedly natural decomposition as well as cremation and traditional burials.
Instead, some families received urns with concrete to replace dead people's ashes, and the Hallfords gave families the wrong body at least twice. At the facility, officials found several bodies in hazardous conditions inside the building that was later condemned and demolished by federal environmental regulators as a toxic waste site.
In December, Jon and Carie Hallford entered guilty pleas to state charges. Jon Hallford, 46, was sentenced in February to 40 years in state prison.
“No sentence can undo the harm that was caused,” Rachael Powell, chief deputy district attorney for Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, told reporters. “We have committed to our responsibility, which was to follow the evidence, consider the wishes of the families, and hold Jon and Carie Hallford accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
In an April 25 email, Michael Stuzynski, Carie Hallford's lawyer, declined to comment on the sentencing.
After neighbors in October 2023 reported foul odors from the Penrose funeral home, officials arrested the couple in November 2023, in Oklahoma. In August 2024, the two were ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to families who sued the couple for mishandling dead relatives' bodies.
Advertisement
For more than two years, the two faced separate federal and state criminal cases that resulted in decades of prison time after entering guilty plea deals.
Jon Hallford was sentenced in June to 20 years in federal prison. Records show he’s held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana.
In mid-March, Carie Hallford was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, after pleading guilty in August. In federal court, the two pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, including by defrauding the federal Small Business Administration for over $880,000 in pandemic relief funds. Each are ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution for their role in the conspiracy, federal officials said.
Both have appealed their federal cases.
In Colorado’s state cases, Powell said, the two are prohibited from operating any funeral homes or mortuary services of any kind, and they are each to pay nearly $70,000 in restitution to victims. The plea agreements outline federal and state prison terms are served concurrently.
The Hallfords’ scheme prompted Colorado lawmakers to regulate funeral homes, aligning with industry laws in all other 49 U.S. states. Bipartisan laws moved to create a licensure system, as well as requirements to have accredited education, licensing and training to practice in the field, including background checks.
Following the closure of the criminal cases, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller on April 24 said all but two bodies have been identified. They would bring the total to 191 corpses identified at the Hallfords' facility, he said.
Contributing: Trevor Hughes and Marc Ramirez of USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado funeral home co-owner sentenced in corpse scheme
Source: “AOL Breaking”
