In one of the most gruesome funeral home scandals in U.S. history, Jon Hallford, co-owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The 44-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after authorities uncovered his stomach-turning scheme involving nearly 200 decomposing human remains hidden in an abandoned, bug-infested building.
Hallford and his wife, Carie, ran the Colorado business under the guise of providing environmentally friendly services. Instead, they spent four years pocketing payments from grieving families while secretly stashing bodies like trash, some of which had been left to rot since 2019.
Families who believed they were receiving their loved ones’ cremated remains were unknowingly given random dust. In at least two tragic cases, the wrong bodies were buried entirely. One young boy fell into a severe depression upon learning his grandmother’s remains were never cremated, telling his parents he wanted to die just to speak with her again.
For victims, the emotional fallout has been devastating. One man described his mother being “thrown into a festering sea of death,” unsure if she was left naked or piled like lumber among the dead. The betrayal destroyed their ability to grieve, with many now burdened by unanswered questions and lasting trauma.
Colorado Couple Hides 190 Bodies Found Rotting in Funeral Home
While the bodies piled up in secret, the Hallfords lived it up. Jon Hallford admitted to misusing nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds and client payments. He admits to blowing it on everything from luxury cars and designer jewelry to laser body sculpting and cryptocurrency. According to The Sun, their indulgent purchases include a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti. As well as tens of thousands spent at Gucci and Tiffany.
The Colorado funeral home owner claimed he opened the funeral home hoping to “make a positive impact in people’s lives.” However, he admitted: “Then everything got completely out of control, especially me.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Hallford was ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution, including nearly $200,000 split among the victimized families. The rest will go to the Small Business Administration to cover the stolen pandemic funds.
Hallford’s federal sentence will run concurrently with an upcoming state sentence expected in August. He’s already pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse, along with forgery and money laundering charges. Meanwhile, his wife Carie Hallford, who initially pled guilty, has since withdrawn her plea and is set to go to trial in September. She faces the same disturbing state charges.
This wasn’t just fraud. It was a full-blown nightmare in a Colorado funeral home. While Jon and Carie Hallford cashed in on death, families were handed meaningless ashes and robbed of their final goodbyes. What should have been a sacred farewell turned into a house of horrors. A shocking 190 corpses were disrespected and silently decayed in the dark while the Hallfords lived large. Justice may be underway, but the scars and nightmares left behind are forever.
Hunter Spears 
