Colorado funeral home owners accused of abandoning 190 bodies spent money taken from families on vehicles, cryptocurrency and lavish dinners, a court heard.
Jon and Carie Hallford face 250 counts of forgery, theft, money laundering and abuse of a corpse after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were discovered at their Return to Nature funeral home in Colorado Springs.
Investigators discovered “abhorrent conditions” when they raided the property in October after repeated complaints from neighbors about the “dead animal smell” covering the area.
Horrified police discovered 190 bodies abandoned in rooms where “human decomposition fluids and insects covered the floor.”
Relatives who paid $1,290 for an eco-friendly cremation and a promise to plant a tree in the Colorado National Forest reportedly received “concrete dust” instead of ashes while their loved ones were cast aside and forgotten.
On Thursday it was detailed how they used the families’ money to buy two vehicles worth $120,000, enough to cover double the costs of all the bodies found in their warehouse.
Jon and Carie Hallford face 250 charges of forgery, theft, money laundering and abuse of a corpse after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were discovered at their funeral home.
Chrystina Page, right, holds back Heather De Wolf, yelling at Jon Hallford, left, as she leaves with her attorneys after a preliminary hearing, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024.
FBI agent Andrew Cohen testified while John Hallford He looked ahead sitting at the defense table. He didn’t seem to show any reaction.
Some of the bodies had been in the maggot-infested building for years before being discovered following reports of a bad smell.
Families who hired Return to Nature to cremate their relatives said the FBI confirmed their remains were among the decomposing bodies.
The testimony about the Hallfords’ spending practices came during a hearing in which a judge determined that prosecutors presented enough evidence to show that Jon Hallford should stand trial on criminal charges.
The judge previously ruled that Carie Hallford will also stand trial. The couple was arrested in November in Oklahoma.
None of them have pleaded guilty yet. Investigators have been gathering evidence since the bodies were found.
Jon Hallford’s lawyer argued that the prosecution had not proven that money in the couple’s account was spent to conceal the origin of the funds, meaning it did not constitute a money laundering offence.
He also said one of the vehicles was purchased with money the couple received from the federal Small Business Administration.
Families who hired Return to Nature to cremate their relatives said the FBI confirmed their remains were among the decomposing bodies.
A hearse and van sit outside the Return to Nature Funeral Home on Oct. 6, 2023, in Penrose, Colorado.
None of them have pleaded guilty yet. Investigators have been gathering evidence since the bodies were found.
Cohen said the money, an adjustment to a pandemic-era small business loan given to the Hallfords, was obtained fraudulently after Hallford lied by saying he was not behind on child support payments.
In addition to their funeral home, they used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose as a body storage facility, prosecutors say.
Angelika Stedman hired the house to cremate her 24-year-old daughter and still does not know for sure what happened to her body.
His daughter is not among those whose remains have been identified so far at the Penrose facility.
“They still would have gotten a lot of benefit if they had done what they were supposed to do,” he said after hearing the testimony.
Mark Miller, whose brother was one of the bodies recovered at the facility, said The Denver Gazette last month: ‘I am very happy with the judge’s findings to (link) the charges so that we can all move forward and take the next step.
‘I don’t agree (with the bonus reductions) and I’m a little upset. But on the other hand, I know that (the judge) is subject to certain criteria, regulations and rules, so I have to try to understand that too.’
The company opened its doors in 2017 and offers “a natural way to care for your loved one with minimal environmental impact.”
At the time of the raid, he owed more than $120,000 in unpaid bills and had been repeatedly taken to court over unpaid wages and disputes with local medical centers.
At a previous hearing for Carie Hallford, prosecutors presented texts suggesting she and her husband tried to cover up their financial difficulties by leaving the bodies at the Penrose site.
Relatives said they had raised their suspicions with the couple, but each time they were deceived.
Samantha Naranjo (right) discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored for more than a year in the dilapidated building.
When retired Army officer Tanya Wilson’s family received her ashes, her brother Elliot thought they were unusually heavy and confronted Carie Hallford.
When he took them to the director of a nearby funeral home, he was told, “I’ve never seen anything that looks like what cremated remains would normally expect.”
Two families were so suspicious that they mixed the ‘ashes’ with water and found that they solidified.
Samantha Naranjo discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored for more than a year in the dilapidated building.
She told KRDO: ‘We were hurt, we were frustrated and now we are angry. We want justice. Not only for us, but for each of those victims. Each one of them.
“His family deserves to be at peace, the community deserves justice.”
Jon Hallford was released from the El Paso County Jail in late January after posting $100,000 bail. Carie Hallford remained in jail Thursday on $100,000 bond.
Carie Hallford is scheduled to appear in court on March 21 for an arraignment hearing.