A funeral home owner who kept the decomposing bodies of nearly 200 people stashed away while handing their grieving families fake ashes has been jailed.
Jon Hallford was caught after residents in the tiny town of Penrose, southern Colorado, where he co-owned the Return to Nature Funeral Home, began complaining of an awful smell.
Investigators turning up to search the dilapidated, bug-infested building found at least 190 corpses piled on top of each other in various states of decay. Some had been there for years.
Hallford, 44, admitted conspiring to commit wire fraud and was jailed for 20 years – five more than prosecutors demanded and double what his own lawyers pleaded for.
He also admitted pocketing nearly $900,000 in Covid relief funds and splurging the cash on luxury shopping sprees, cosmetic procedures, flash cars and crypto.
Many families said it undid their grieving processes.
Some relatives had nightmares, others have struggled with guilt, and at least one wondered about their loved one’s soul.
Derrick Johnson told the court his mother had been ‘thrown into a festering sea of death’.
He said: ‘I lie awake wondering: was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?
‘While the bodies rotted in secret, [the Hallfords] lived, they laughed and they dined.
‘My mom’s cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.’
Court documents revealed Hallford had sent families urns filled with dry concrete mix, and in two cases the wrong body had been buried.
The District of Colorado said in a statement the Hallfords had ‘collected more than $130,000 from grieving families for funeral services that were never provided’.
It added: ‘Instead of ensuring proper disposition of the remains, Hallford allowed bodies to accumulate in various states of decay and decomposition inside the funeral home’s facility.’
Hallford and his wife Carie were arrested in Oklahoma last November.
He pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse and hundreds of other state charges including forgery and money laundering.
Hallford told the judge: ‘I am so deeply sorry for my actions.
‘I still hate myself for what I’ve done’”
His wife faces trial later this year.
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