A woman shared how her grief prolonged after discovering her dead son had not been cremated as she thought, but was rotting in a broken refrigerator.
Crystina Page lost her son David Jaxon Page when he was just 20 years old after he was killed during an officer-involved shooting while suffering a mental health crisis in 2019.
In a first-person piece for news weekCrystina explained that she used the Return To Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs to cremate her son, as they gave her the pamphlet when the police came to conduct the official notification and questioning after his death.
A few days later, the grieving mother was asked to identify her son, but was then told that her son had already been cremated; However, years later she discovered that this was not the case.
Crystina Page lost her son David Jaxon Page (pictured as a child) when he was just 20 years old after he was killed during an officer-involved shooting while suffering a mental health crisis in 2019.
A few days later, the grieving mother was asked to identify her son, but was then told that her son (pictured as a child) had already been cremated; However, years later she discovered that this was not the case.
“For four years, I mourned my son and fought for him in a murder case against the police, thinking he had been buried shortly after his death,” she told Newsweek.
On October 24, 2023, Crystina received a call from the FBI informing her that her son had been identified as one of the 190 bodies found at the Return To Nature funeral home in the Rocky Mountain town of Penrose.
The funeral home, run by couple Jon and Carrie Hallford, was accused of abandoning dozens of bodies, spending money taken from families on vehicles, cryptocurrency and lavish dinners.
‘It was completely devastating,’ he anguished. ‘I don’t know how to explain what it feels like to know that not only was my son taken away, but that his body was desecrated. Most people cannot understand the seriousness of this.
According to Crystina, when the FBI first notified her of the situation, they told her that her son’s body was naked and exposed.
“I didn’t even have a body bag. He wasn’t wrapped in a sheet. There was no dignity in this,” she recalled sadly.
The mother said in court that she discovered her son’s body was likely stored in Room L, which was where most of the older bodies were, and that it had an inoperable refrigeration system.
“By inoperable I mean that we have seen no evidence that these refrigerators have ever worked,” he wrote.
On October 24, 2023, Crystina received a call from the FBI informing her that her son had been identified as one of the 190 bodies found at the Return To Nature funeral home in the Rocky Mountain town of Penrose.
According to Crystina, when the FBI first notified her of the situation, they told her that her son’s body was naked and exposed.
The mother (pictured with her son) told the court that she discovered her son’s body was probably stored in Room L, which was where most of the older bodies were, and that it had an inoperable cooling system. .
“There were rats and maggots and eight inches of liquid throughout the building, and 190 bodies were found in similar conditions,” he added.
Crystina, who said she was having “night terrors” of bugs and rats eating her son’s face and “bodies stacked on top of each other, skin to skin,” was shown photos of the room.
“Seeing those photographs allowed me to understand the reality of the situation,” he admitted. “I noticed that most of the bodies were not in that condition; many were in body bags or wrapped in sheets.”
Although Crystina was “comforted” to know that the bodies were not in the putrid state she thought, it was still horrible to see.
She added that, surprisingly, she is considered “lucky” because there are still 948 missing people whose bodies have not been identified or accounted for.
When Crystina first received the notification, she took to social media to find out if there was a support group for other families suffering like hers.
‘I work with people in mental health crises. “I knew that if I was going through such a difficult time, then people who had not gone through trauma or who were not used to dealing with these types of things would have an even harder time,” he noted.
Crystina said she reached out to some of the support groups and wanted to provide the right information to the affected families, community and industry experts.
‘There are hundreds of us. It helped us build a support infrastructure that, in a situation like this, doesn’t really exist,” he explained. ‘We don’t have any avenues of support. Things like this don’t happen, so there’s nothing planned for when it does.’
“For example, we had to wait until February 1, 2024 for the first financial compensation checks to be issued to victims,” he explained. “This case is not about money, but we all had necessary expenses.”
Crystina said they still have no idea what motivated the couple to neglect the bodies and lie, and the grieving mother said she doesn’t believe it was financially motivated, even though they misspent nearly $900,000 in squandered pandemic relief funds. on items such as two vehicles. valued at $120,000.
The funeral home (pictured April 2024) was run by couple Jon and Carrie Hallford, was accused of abandoning 190 bodies, spending money taken from families on vehicles, cryptocurrency and lavish dinners.
Jon and Carie Hallford (pictured above outside their funeral home) also collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided, according to the federal indictment.
Jon (left) and Carie Hallford (right) were indicted on federal charges of wasting nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other personal expenses, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
Crystina says finding out that Carie Hallford is a mother evokes “absolute disbelief, anger and hatred” towards her.
“I know of a family member who told her that her daughter was acquitted and cremated, but that there is concrete in the urn instead of her daughter’s ashes,” he wrote.
“He met with clients, signed contracts and took our money,” he wrote. “Carie assured us with a smile and a hug that she would care for our dead in a way that gave them dignity and respect.”
Crystina added that she had been carrying human remains for four years thinking it was her son, only to discover it had been at the funeral home the entire time.
“I will never know whose cremated remains I carried,” he wrote sadly.
Colorado funeral home owners Jon and Carie Hallford face 15 federal grand jury charges, in addition to more than 200 criminal charges already pending against them in Colorado state court for abuse of corpses, money laundering, theft and forgery.
The couple also collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided, according to the indictment.
The federal crimes carry potential penalties of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, according to the indictment.
The Hallfords’ first court appearance in Colorado Springs is expected in early June. A jury trial is tentatively scheduled for October.
