A Colorado Funeral Home Owner's Disturbing Hoarding of Dead Bodies and Scamming of Families
Undertaker convicted to a 20-year sentence for storing over 180 decayed corpses in illegal conditions.
In a chilling revelation, Jon Hallford, the owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, was slapped with a 20-year prison sentence in federal court for swindling clients and defrauding the government out of close to $900,000 in Covid-19 aid. In addition, he's facing a separate state case and is yet to be sentenced for storing over 190 deceased bodies in an unsanitary, vermin-filled building, which left many families in agony as they dealt with the realization that their loved ones' ashes were fake.
Hallford confessed to the fraud by pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year, but could have been imprisoned for up to 20 years. Federal prosecutors suggested a 15-year sentence, while Hallford's attorney sought a 10-year term.
Before sentencing, Hallford expressed remorse, telling the judge he entered the funeral home business with noble intentions but subsequently lost control. "I am so deeply sorry for my actions," he said, adding, "I still hate myself for what I've done."
The macabre discovery took place in 2023, when investigators found the bodies stacked haphazardly throughout a dilapidated building in Penrose, a small town south of Denver. This stomach-churning find confirmed that many families' loved ones had not been cremated and that the ashes they had scattered or kept were fraudulent. In two distressing cases, the wrong bodies were interred, court documents stated.
To compound the families' grief, many have since experienced nightmares, wrestled with guilt, or questioned their loved ones' souls. One victim, Colton Sperry, a young boy who lost his beloved grandmother in 2019, described being plunged into depression after learning that her body had painfully lingered in the funeral home for four years. He told the judge through tears, "I miss my grandma so much."
Federal prosecutors highlighted that the Hallfords had squandered aid money on luxury items, such as purchasing a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, as well as extravagant items from Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and even laser body sculpting.
Derrick Johnson, who travelled thousands of miles to testify, expressed his anguish over his mother being "thrown into a festering sea of decay." He questioned whether she was hidden naked, stacked amongst others like firewood, and wondered if her cremation funds may have financed the Hallfords' luxurious lifestyle.
Laura H. Suelau, Hallford's attorney, argued for a lower sentence of 10 years during the hearing, asserting that Hallford accepted responsibility for his actions and didn't offer any excuses.
Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff emphasized the gruesome scene in the building during the trial. FBI agents couldn't access certain rooms as the bodies were piled so high and in varying states of decay. In the end, they had to lay boards down to walk through the rooms and eventually pump out the fluid.
Co-owner Carie Hallford is set to go on trial in the federal case in September, around the same time as her next hearing in the state case, during which she's also charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse.
Enrichment Insights:
- Jon Hallford's case encompasses not just federal fraud charges but also hundreds of state charges, primarily involving the improper handling of human remains.
- The state case concerns mishandling of corpses, forgery, and money laundering, in addition to the federal charges focused on financial fraud.
- Although Jon Hallford has been convicted for the state charges, he has yet to receive a sentence specifically related to the corpse abuse counts.
Despite Hallford's guilty plea for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and receiving a 20-year prison sentence for federal charges, he still faces a separate state case for mishandling corpses and forgery, for which he has yet to be sentenced. The general news about Hallford's case, involving politics of the justice system and crime-and-justice issues, has stirred widespread distress among the families affected.
