DENVER: Colorado funeral home owners accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds and living lavishly, all while allegedly stashing 190 decaying bodies in a building and sending grieving families fake ashes, are expected to plead guilty to federal charges Thursday. Jon and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home about an hour’s drive south of Denver, have been charged with 15 federal offenses related to defrauding the US government and the funeral home’s customers. Additionally, over 200 criminal counts are already pending against them in Colorado state court, including for corpse abuse and forgery.
The Hallfords used the pandemic aid and customers’ payments to buy a GMC Yukon and Infiniti that together were worth over $120,000, laser body sculpting, trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas, $31,000 in cryptocurrency and luxury items at stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., according to court documents. The federal charges could carry up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Jon Hallford is being represented by the federal public defenders office, which does not comment on cases. Calls and emails to Carie Hallford’s lawyer in the federal case have not been returned, and her attorney in the state case, Michael Stuzynski, declined to comment. The federal indictment arrived after last year’s discovery of the 190 corpses in a bug-infested building owned by Return to Nature in Penrose, a small town southwest of Colorado.
