Colorado funeral home owner faces sentencing for abusing 189 bodies

A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed 189 decomposing bodies and gave families fake ashes is set to be sentenced Friday. Jon Hallford, who owned Return to Nature Funeral Home with his then-wife Carie, pleaded guilty to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse. Investigators discovered the bodies in 2023 after reports of a stench. Families of the deceased were devastated to learn the ashes they received were not their loved ones. Jon Hallford faces between 30 and 50 years in prison. In a related case, the Hallfords admitted to defrauding the federal government of nearly $900,000 in pandemic aid.