Owners of a Colorado funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were found are charged with COVID fraud
DENVER — A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where authorities last year discovered 190 decaying bodies were indicted on federal charges that they misspent nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other personal expenses, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The indictment reaffirms accusations from state prosecutors that Jon and Carie Hallford gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and alleges the couple buried the wrong body on two occasions.
The couple also collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided, the indictment said.
The 15 charges brought by the federal grand jury are in addition to more than 200 criminal counts already pending against the Hallfords in Colorado state court for corpse abuse, money laundering, theft and forgery.
The federal offenses carry potential penalties of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, the indictment said.
On Monday, the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs entered a federal courtroom bound in shackles as they made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff argued the couple were a flight risk, after they allegedly fled to Oklahoma last October when the decaying bodies were first discovered and before their arrest on state charges on Nov. 8.
“They simply evaporated from the community,” Neff said.
The judge did not immediately decide if the couple should be released pending trial. He set an arraignment hearing for Thursday.
Carie Hallford’s attorney, Chaz Melihercik, said he would argue against detention at the next hearing. Jon Hallford’s public defender, Kilie Latendresse, told the judge that he had been following his bond conditions in the state case and that detention was unnecessary.
The new charges and accusations triggered more anguish for families who sent their loved ones to the funeral home.
Every new revelation about the case is a jolt to Tanya Wilson, who hired Return to Nature to cremate her mother’s remains. Wilson spread the ashes with family in Hawaii. After the grim discovery, Wilson was told those ashes weren’t actually her mother, whose body has since been identified among the 190 decaying bodies.
Hundreds of family members, like Wilson, had thought they put their loved one’s to rest, or clutched their ashes close, only to have that healing torn away.
“I honestly feel like I have whiplash, and I can’t hold onto one emotion long enough to be able to process it,” Wilson said over the phone.
Before the new indictment was unsealed, public records showed the Hallfords had been plagued by debt — facing evictions and lawsuits for unpaid cremations even as they spent lavishly on themselves.
The indictment alleges the couple used $882,300 in pandemic relief funds to buy items that also included a vehicle, dinners, tuition for their child and cryptocurrency. The fraud involved three loans obtained between March 2020 and October 2021, authorities said.
Previously released court documents from the state abuse of corpse case reveal more details about what they were spending money on.
They bought a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti that together were worth over $120,000 — enough to cover cremation costs twice over for all of the bodies found in their business’ facility last October, according to previous court testimony from FBI Agent Andrew Cohen.
“That is just thoroughly disgusting for a lack of a better term, just reading about all the money that they had,” said Wilson. “Just the price of the two vehicles that he bought ... it was enough to just do right by these families.”
The Hallfords also paid for trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas, as well as $31,000 in cryptocurrency, laser body sculpting and shopping at luxury retailers like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., according to court documents.
The couple have not yet entered pleas to the state’s abuse of corpse charges.