A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home with 190 decaying bodies allegedly gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes.
Jon and Carie Hallford, who are the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly defrauding their customers, according to a press release by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
The couple is facing 13 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and are accused of using $882,300 in pandemic relief loans that were meant to help small businesses.
The indictment states that they bought a "vehicle, multiple vacations, entertainment, dining, tuition for a minor child, cryptocurrency, cosmetic medical procedures, jewelry," and merchandise from Amazon, with the money.
As reported by PEOPLE, the couple - who were arrested in November 2023 in Oklahoma - also face additional felony charges such as abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering, and forgery.
Authorities have said that residents in the area have complained about an odor from the facility, which prompted the search and led to the discovery of 190 decaying bodies improperly stored in the facility.
Furthermore, it has been stated in the federal indictment that the Hallfords are also arraigned for allegedly accumulating more than $130,000 from families for cremation or funeral services that they never provided as well as fabricating death certificates.
The filing also claims that they "provided the decedent’s family members, friends, or the designated next-of-kin with an urn filled with dry concrete mix instead of the actual cremains of the deceased".
In addition to this, the couple also allegedly gave the wrong body for cemetery burial on two occasions.
As the decomposing bodies were identified, families like Tanya Wilson - who hired Return to Nature to cremate her mother’s remains - have now learned that the ashes they'd received could not have been the remains of her loved one.
Speaking to NBC News, Wilson said: "I honestly feel like I have whiplash, and I can’t hold onto one emotion long enough to be able to process it."
"That is just thoroughly disgusting for a lack of a better term, just reading about all the money that they had," Wilson said about the loans the couple spent. "Just the price of the two vehicles that he bought ... it was enough to just do right by these families."
The court filing disclosed that the Hallfords each face 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted of the federal charges.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency revealed last month in a statement that the facility would be demolished. "Following the assessment, EPA has determined that demolition of the building is necessary to safely remove all residual medical and biological materials found in the building," the agency said, per PEOPLE.
