Funeral Home Owner Sentenced for Abuse of Bodies
Jon Hallford, a funeral home owner convicted of storing 189 decomposing bodies in a building over four years and providing grieving families with fake ashes, was sentenced to 40 years in state prison on Friday.
During the sentencing hearing, family members addressed Judge Eric Bentley, describing recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots since discovering the treatment of their loved ones’ remains.
They referred to Hallford as a “monster” and urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 50 years.
“It is my personal belief that every one of us, every human being, is basically good at the core, but we live in a world that tests that belief every day, and, Mr Hallford, your crimes are testing that belief,”
Bentley said, acknowledging the “unspeakable and incomprehensible” harm caused.
Before sentencing, Hallford apologized and expressed remorse, stating he would regret his actions for the rest of his life.
“I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said. “My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”
Hallford’s attorney sought a 30-year sentence, arguing the offenses were not violent crimes and that Hallford had no prior criminal record; however, this request was denied.
His former wife, Carie Hallford, who co-owned the Return to Nature Funeral Home, is scheduled for sentencing on April 24. She faces 25 to 35 years in prison.
Both pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse under a plea agreement with prosecutors.
During the period they stored bodies improperly, the Hallfords reportedly spent lavishly, according to court documents. Their expenditures included purchasing a GMC Yukon SUV and an Infiniti luxury car valued at over $120,000 combined, investing $31,000 in cryptocurrency, and buying expensive items from stores such as Gucci and Tiffany, as well as paying for laser body sculpting.
“Clearly this is a crime motivated by greed,”
said prosecutor Shelby Crow. The Hallfords charged more than $1,200 per customer, and the money spent on luxury goods would have covered the cost of cremating all the bodies multiple times, Crow added.
The Hallfords also pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges related to cheating the government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid. Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison in that case, while Carie Hallford’s sentencing is pending.
A plea agreement in the corpse abuse case stipulates that the state prison sentence will be served concurrently with the federal sentence.
Family Members Speak Out
One family member who spoke at the hearing was Kelly Mackeen, whose mother’s remains were handled by Return to Nature.
“I’m a daughter whose mother was treated like yesterday’s trash and dumped in a site left to rot with hundreds of others,”
Mackeen said.
“I’m heartbroken, and I ask God every day for grace.”
As family members expressed their grief, Jon Hallford sat at a table to their right, wearing orange jail attire and looking directly ahead. The courtroom’s wooden benches were filled with relatives of the deceased and journalists.
Details of the Abuse
The Hallfords stored the bodies in a building in Penrose, a small town south of Colorado Springs, from 2019 until 2023, when investigators responded to reports of a foul odor emanating from the building.
Bodies were discovered throughout the building, some stacked atop one another, with swarms of insects and decomposition fluids covering the floors, investigators reported. The remains included adults, infants, and fetuses, all stored at room temperature.
The bodies were identified over several months using fingerprints, DNA, and other forensic methods.
Investigators believe the Hallfords provided families with dry concrete resembling ashes instead of actual remains.
After learning that the ashes they received and kept or scattered were not genuine, many families reported that it disrupted their grieving process, with some experiencing nightmares and feelings of guilt.
One recovered body was that of a former army sergeant first class who was believed to have been buried at a veterans’ cemetery, FBI agent Andrew Cohen said.
When investigators exhumed the wooden casket at the cemetery, they found remains of a person of a different gender inside, Cohen stated. The veteran, whose identity was not disclosed in court, was later given a funeral with full military honors at Pikes Peak National Cemetery.
Regulatory Changes and Background
The revelations of corpse abuse prompted changes to Colorado’s previously lax funeral home regulations. In May 2024, lawmakers passed a bill granting regulators increased enforcement authority over funeral homes and requiring routine inspections of facilities, including inspections after a funeral home closes.
The Associated Press previously reported that the Hallfords missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties, and faced lawsuits for unpaid bills, according to public records and interviews with individuals who worked with them.
In an uncommon decision last year, Judge Bentley rejected earlier plea agreements between the Hallfords and prosecutors that proposed sentences of up to 20 years. Family members of the deceased argued that those agreements were too lenient.
