A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were discovered last year is expected to appear in state court for a plea hearing on Nov. 8 after being charged with hundreds of counts of corpse abuse.
Jon Hallford, 44, and Carie Hallford, 47, owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, each face 190 counts of corpse abuse, along with charges of theft, money laundering, and forgery, according to court documents.
On Friday, the pair will enter pleas related to more than 200 criminal counts pending against them in Colorado state court.
“As part of their plea agreements, the Hallfords also admitted that they conspired together to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration of over $800,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, which they obtained under the government’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.”
The Hallfords allegedly collected $130,000 from victims for burial and cremation services that were never provided. The indictment stated that the defendants sent clients “an urn filled with dry concrete mix,” instead of the cremated remains of their loved ones.
Last month, the couple pleaded guilty to federal charges as part of an agreement in which they acknowledged defrauding customers and the federal government.
Prosecutors alleged that the couple received three separate funding payments from the Small Business Administration (SBA) totaling $882,300 by submitting documents with “materially false representations.”
The Hallfords were accused of misusing the SBA funds to spend on things such as “a vehicle, multiple vacations, entertainment, dining, tuition for a minor child, cryptocurrency, cosmetic medical procedures, jewelry, various goods and merchandise from Amazon, and payments to other vendors unrelated to their business,” the indictment stated.
Jon Hallford is being represented by the federal public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases. Carie Hallford’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
