Colorado funeral home owners plead guilty to corpse abuse after nearly 200 bodies found decomposing

The owners of a Colorado funeral home accused of piling hundreds of bodies in room-temperature conditions inside a dilapidated building and giving loved ones concrete instead of ashes have pleaded guilty to corpse abuse. 

Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse on Friday. 

“The bodies were [lying] on the ground, stacked on shelves, left on gurneys, stacked on top of each other or just piled in rooms,” prosecutor Rachael Powell said in court. 

Their loved ones are “intensely and forever outraged,” she added. Some of the families were in the courtroom when they pleaded guilty. 

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Crystina Page, whose son died in 2019, said outside the courtroom on Friday: “He laid in the corner of an inoperable fridge, dumped out of his body bag with rats and maggots eating his face for four years. Now every moment that I think of my son, I’m having to think of Jon and Carie, and that’s not going away.”

The Hallfords also faced charges of theft, money laundering and forgery, which were dismissed with their plea deals. 

The couple spent $882,300 in COVID relief funds on things like vacations, cosmetic surgery, car and tuition for their child. 

Jon Hallford could serve 20 years in prison under the plea deal and Carie Hallford could serve 15 to 20 years. 

Six people who objected to the plea deals, calling their recommended sentences insufficient, will get a chance to speak before they’re sentenced in April. 

Fremont County deputies guard the road leading to the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., Oct. 5, 2023.  (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP/The Gazette via AP)

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If the judge rejects the plea deal, the case may still go to trial. 

The Hallfords already pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October in connection with their misuse of funds. 

The accusations go back to 2019 and the improperly stored bodies were discovered after neighbors reported a stench coming from the building. 

A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., Oct. 5, 2023.  (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

Authorities in hazmat gear found bodies stacked on top of each other, some so decayed they couldn’t be identified, and the place was infested with bugs. 

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Following the gruesome discovery, Colorado has tightened funeral home regulations. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.