Colorado Funeral Home Owner Accused of Stashing Decomposing Bodies Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Facing up to 15 Years in Prison

Funeral home owner Carie Hallford admitted in a federal court on Monday to conspiring to defraud customers and the government of nearly $900,000. The accusation includes misleading clients about cremation services and fraudulently obtaining pandemic-era financial aid from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Hallford, who co-owned Return to Nature Funeral Home with her husband Jon Hallford, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If sentenced according to the agreed-upon terms at a December hearing, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

Previously, Carie Hallford had admitted guilt in federal court, but a judge rejected that agreement last year. The current plea deal is still subject to approval by the same judge.

Crystina Page, whose son David died in 2019 and remained unrefrigerated for four years at the funeral home, expressed disappointment outside the courthouse on Monday. She hoped a trial would provide answers about her son’s case and others entrusted to their care.

“We still don’t know the truth of what they’ve done to us,” she said.

The federal case against both Hallfords focuses on two schemes: misrepresenting documents to embezzle approximately $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds and deceiving clients by charging for cremations or burial services that were never carried out.

Instead of cremating the nearly 200 bodies between 2019 and 2023, as per the clients’ payments, the Hallfords allegedly stored them in a dilapidated building and provided some customers with dry concrete instead of ashes.

The Hallfords reportedly diverted around $130,000 intended for cremation or burial services into personal expenses such as luxury products—including a GMC Yukon, laser body sculpting, vacations, jewelry, and cryptocurrency.

Both Hallfords face additional charges in a Colorado state court, including 191 counts of corpse abuse due to incidents like burying the wrong bodies and allowing others to decompose. Jon Hallford has already pleaded guilty to these charges, as well as a fraud charge related to the federal case for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The building where the remains were stored was discovered in Penrose, Colorado, in 2023, approximately two hours south of Denver. The revelation has left many families who had lost loved ones feeling even more devastated, as they discovered that their relatives’ remains were not present in the ashes they spread or held dear but instead decomposing in the building.

Investigators found bodies stacked on top of each other, swarms of insects and maggots, and so much liquid on the ground that it needed to be pumped out.