Colorado funeral home owners sentenced for corpse abuse

Jon Hallford, co-owner of the funeral home, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in February for abuse of a corpse. During the sentencing hearing, family members told Judge Eric Bentley they have had recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots. They called Hallford a 'monster' and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence of 50 years. Judge Bentley told Hallford he caused 'unspeakable and incomprehensible' harm. Hallford apologized before his sentencing and said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life. Hallford's attorney unsuccessfully sought a 30-year sentence, arguing that it was not a crime of violence and he had no prior criminal record.

Carie Hallford, the other co-owner, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted to cheating customers and defrauding the federal government of nearly $900,000 in pandemic aid. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to multiple reports. Prosecutors had asked for a 15-year sentence, while her defense asked for 8 years. A plea agreement in the corpse abuse case calls for the state prison sentence to be served concurrently with the federal sentence. Carie Hallford faces up to 20 years in prison for taking over $130,000 from families for funeral services, often giving them urns of concrete mix instead of ashes, prosecutors said.

The Hallfords drove luxury cars, went on expensive holidays, and shopped at designer stores, according to multiple reports. Court documents show that during the years they were stashing bodies, the Hallfords spent lavishly, including purchasing a GMC Yukon SUV and an Infiniti luxury car worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, expensive goods from stores such as Gucci and Tiffany, and on laser body sculpting. Prosecutor Shelby Crow said 'Clearly this is a crime motivated by greed.' The Hallfords charged more than $1,200 per customer, and the money they spent on luxury items would have covered the cost to cremate all of the bodies many times over, according to Crow.

Carie Hallford was the public face of the business, meeting with families and assuring them of dignified care, according to multiple reports. According to Daily Mirror - Main, Jon Hallford described himself as a third-generation funeral home director with 19 years of experience. Investigators said that in two cases, the wrong body was buried. Kelly Mackeen, whose mother's remains were handled by Return to Nature, said 'I'm a daughter whose mother was treated like yesterday's trash and dumped in a site left to rot with hundreds of others.'

Carie Hallford's defense lawyer, Robert Charles Melihercik, said she was a victim of domestic violence and manipulation by her ex-husband. The exact number of bodies discovered remains unclear, with reports citing either 189 or 191 bodies. The full extent of the Hallfords' financial fraud is still being investigated, and it is unknown how many families received fake ashes or wrong remains.