Colorado funeral home owner who left nearly 200 bodies decomposing gets 18 years in federal prison
(Booking photos of Carie and Jon Hallford, Image credit: Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office)
A former Colorado funeral home owner at the center of one of the most disturbing funeral industry scandals in recent U.S. history has been sentenced to nearly two decades behind bars.
Carie Hallford, 49, the former co-owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs and Penrose, was sentenced Monday to 18 years (216 months) in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release and more than $1.07 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Hallford pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors said Hallford and her then-husband and business partner, Jon Hallford, ran a years-long scheme that exploited grieving families while mishandling the remains of the deceased.
Between September 2019 and October 2023, the couple failed to cremate or bury at least 190 bodies, even though families had paid more than $130,000 for funeral and cremation services. Instead, investigators later found the bodies stacked and decomposing inside a building used by the funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, in conditions so hazardous that first responders had to wear hazmat suits.
Related, also see:
- Owners of Colorado funeral home each plead guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse
- Colorado funeral home owners who left 190 corpses to rot in abandoned facility returned to Colorado to face charges
- Married owners of Colorado funeral home arrested after leaving 190 decaying bodies abandoned in shuttered facility
Authorities said the Hallfords filed death certificates falsely claiming the bodies had been cremated or buried, when in reality the remains had never been disposed of. In some cases, families were reportedly given urns filled with fake ashes, including concrete mix, while believing their loved ones had been properly cremated.
The shocking discovery was made in October 2023 after neighbors reported a persistent foul odor to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators uncovered the remains inside the facility, which was later condemned and demolished by the Environmental Protection Agency after being declared a toxic waste site due to hazardous decomposition conditions.
Prosecutors also said the couple defrauded the federal government by submitting false applications for COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, obtaining $882,300 through the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Instead of supporting the business, authorities said the money was spent on luxury items, vehicles, cryptocurrency and designer goods.
Carie Hallford was responsible for much of the company’s banking, bookkeeping, contracts, and communications with families, according to court filings. In court, Hallford apologized and sought leniency, claiming she had been manipulated and emotionally abused by her husband. U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang acknowledged evidence of a troubled relationship but ruled that it did not excuse Hallford’s role in deceiving grieving customers.
Victims described ongoing trauma after learning their loved ones had been left in the abandoned facility. Some families only recently learned through DNA testing that their relatives were among the remains discovered.
“It takes an exceptionally sick person to even think of a fraud scheme like Jon and Carie Hallford’s,” U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly said in a statement, calling their conduct a profound violation of human dignity.
Jon Hallford was previously sentenced in June 2025 to 20 years in federal prison in the fraud case. In a separate state case, he received 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse.
Carie Hallford also pleaded guilty to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse in state court, and she faces an additional 25 to 35 years in prison when she is sentenced on those charges in April 2026. Under the plea agreements, her state and federal sentences will run concurrently.
The couple was originally arrested in Oklahoma in November 2023 after fleeing Colorado when the investigation began.
This heinous case drew national attention and led Colorado officials to declare a local disaster emergency due to the scale and conditions of the discovery, which ranks among the largest known cases of improperly stored human remains at a U.S. funeral home.
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(Sources: Department of Justice, CBS Colorado, The Colorado Sun)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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