Funeral home owners charged with 100s of corpse abuse counts to plead guilty

DENVER (AP) – The owners of a Colorado funeral home in the United States (US) are expected to plead guilty to state charges accusing them of leaving 190 bodies to decay on their premises and giving the grieving relatives fake ashes. The owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, Jon and Carie Hallford, began storing bodies in a decrepit building near Colorado Springs as far back as 2019 and gave families dry concrete in place of cremated remains, according to the charges. The grim discovery last year upended families’ grieving processes.

Over the years, the Hallfords spent extravagantly, prosecutors said. They used customers’ money and nearly USD900,000 in pandemic relief funds to buy laser body sculpting, fancy cars, trips to Las Vegas and Florida, USD31,000 in cryptocurrency and other luxury items, according to court records. Last month, the Hallfords pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in an agreement in which they acknowledged defrauding customers and the federal government.

The two have been charged with more than 200 charges of corpse abuse, theft, forgery and money laundering in state court..