Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday, for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 aid.
A Colorado funeral home owner who secretly stored nearly 190 bodies in a decaying facility and gave grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Friday — the maximum allowed — in a case that has horrified the nation.
Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year after federal investigators uncovered that he fraudulently obtained nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds while running what prosecutors described as a grotesque, criminal operation disguised as a funeral business.
Hallford also faces 191 state counts of abuse of a corpse, to which he has pleaded guilty. Sentencing for those charges is scheduled for August.
Though prosecutors requested a 15-year sentence and defense attorneys asked for 10, U.S. District Judge Nina Wang handed down the full 20-year term, stating the scope of Hallford’s deception and the emotional devastation inflicted on families warranted the harshest punishment.
“This is not an ordinary fraud case,” the judge said during sentencing.
Hallford, visibly remorseful, told the court, “I am so deeply sorry for my actions. I still hate myself for what I’ve done.”
A Disturbing Scene Uncovered
Authorities discovered the full extent of Hallford’s crimes in 2023, when the remains of 190 people were found piled inside a filthy, insect-infested building in the small town of Penrose, about two hours south of Denver.
The horrifying discovery shattered the beliefs of families who thought their loved ones had been cremated. In many cases, the ashes they were given were fake. Investigators even documented instances where the wrong bodies were buried.
Families described overwhelming guilt, confusion, and grief — emotions compounded by the desecration of their loved ones’ remains.
One of the most emotional testimonies came from Colton Sperry, a young boy who tearfully spoke of the pain of losing his grandmother in 2019 — only to learn four years later that her body had been left to rot at the funeral home.
“I miss my grandma so much,” Colton sobbed, recalling the deep depression he fell into after learning the truth. He was hospitalized and now relies on an emotional support dog.
Lavish Spending With Stolen Funds
In addition to charging families for cremation services that were never performed, Hallford and his wife, Carie Hallford, spent the stolen COVID relief funds and client payments on personal luxuries.
Federal prosecutors said the couple used the money to purchase a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti, spend over $31,000 on cryptocurrency, and splurge on designer goods from Gucci and Tiffany & Co., as well as cosmetic procedures, including laser body sculpting.
Victims and their families condemned the Hallfords for living in luxury while their loved ones’ remains were left to decay in secrecy.
Derrick Johnson, who traveled 3,000 miles to testify, said his mother had been “thrown into a festering sea of death.”
“While the bodies rotted in secret, they laughed, they dined,” he said. “My mom’s cremation money probably paid for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.”
More Legal Trouble Ahead
Hallford’s attorney, Laura Suelau, asked the judge to consider her client’s admission of guilt and his cooperation. “He knows he was wrong,” she said, noting he had not tried to deny the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff painted a grim picture of the facility, where FBI agents had to build wooden planks to navigate over decomposing bodies and fluids that eventually had to be drained from the building.
Carie Hallford, who faces similar charges, is set to stand trial in the federal case this September, in addition to facing 191 counts of abuse of a corpse at the state level.
The case has triggered renewed scrutiny of the funeral industry’s oversight and sparked calls for tougher regulations to prevent future tragedies.
