Colorado funeral homeowners ignored nearly 200 BODIES and spent money families paid them for cremations on crypto, a $120k SUV and lavish dinners, court hears

The owners of a Colorado funeral home accused of abandoning 190 bodies spent families’ money on vehicles, crypto and lavish dinners, a court has heard.

Jon and Carie Hallford are facing 250 charges of forgery, theft, money laundering and abuse of a corpse after nearly 200 rotting bodies were discovered at their Return to Nature funeral home in Colorado Springs.

Investigators discovered “horrendous conditions” when they raided the property in October after repeated complaints from neighbors about the “odor of dead animals” hanging over the area.

Horrified police discovered 190 dead bodies left in rooms where “human decomposition fluids and insects lined the floors.”

Family members who paid $1,290 for an eco-friendly cremation and the promise of tree planting in the Colorado National Forest were reportedly given “concrete dust” instead of ashes, while their loved ones were shelved and forgotten.

It detailed Thursday how they used money from families to buy two vehicles worth $120,000, enough to cover twice the cost of all the bodies found in their storage unit.

Chrystina Page, right, holds Heather De Wolf down as she yells at Jon Hallford, left, as he leaves with his lawyers after a preliminary hearing, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024

FBI agent Andrew Cohen testified while John Hallford looked straight ahead, sitting at the defense table. He didn’t seem to show any reaction.

Some bodies had been in the maggot-infested building for years before they were discovered following reports of a foul odor.

Families who hired Return to Nature to cremate their relatives said the FBI confirmed their remains were among the rotting bodies.

The testimony about the Hallfords’ spending practices came during a hearing in which a judge ruled that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to show that Jon Hallford should stand trial on criminal charges.

The judge previously ruled that Carie Hallford will also stand trial. The couple was arrested in Oklahoma in November.

Neither has yet entered a plea. Investigators have been collecting evidence since the bodies were found.

Jon Hallford’s lawyer argued that the prosecution had not shown that money from the couple’s account had been spent to conceal the source of the money, meaning there was no money laundering.

He also said one of the vehicles was purchased with money the couple received from the federal Small Business Administration.

Families who hired Return to Nature to cremate their relatives said the FBI confirmed their remains were among the rotting bodies

A hearse and van stand outside the Return to Nature Funeral Home, October 6, 2023, in Penrose, Colorado

Neither has yet entered a plea. Investigators have been collecting evidence since the bodies were found

Cohen said money, a modification of a pandemic-era small business loan made to the Hallfords, was fraudulently obtained after Hallford lied by saying he was not behind on child support payments.

In addition to their funeral home, they used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose as a storage facility for bodies, prosecutors say.

Angelika Stedman rented the house to cremate her 24-year-old daughter and is still unsure what happened to her body.

Her daughter is not among those whose remains have so far been identified at the Penrose facility.

“They still would have had a lot of profit if they had done what they had to do,” she said after listening to the testimony.

Mark Miller, whose brother was among the bodies recovered at the facility, said The Denver Gazette last month: ‘I am very pleased with the judge’s findings to (bind) the charges so that we can all move on and take the next step.

“I don’t agree with the bond cuts, and I’m quite upset. But on the other hand, I know that (the judge) is bound by certain criteria, regulations and rules, so I have to try to understand that too.’

The company opened in 2017 and offers “a natural way to care for your loved one with minimal impact on the environment.”

By the time of the raid, it owed more than $120,000 in unpaid bills and had been sued repeatedly over unpaid wages and disputes with local medical centers.

At an earlier hearing for Carie Hallford, prosecutors presented texts suggesting she and her husband tried to cover up their financial problems by leaving the bodies at the Penrose site.

Family members said they raised their suspicions with the couple but were repeatedly fobbed off.

Samantha Naranjo (right) discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored in the dilapidated building for more than a year

When the family of retired army officer Tanya Wilson received her ashes, her brother Elliot found the ashes unusually heavy and confronted Carie Hallford.

When he took them to a nearby funeral home, he was told, “I’ve never seen anything that looks like this in the range of what cremated remains would normally look like.”

Two families were so suspicious that they mixed the ‘ashes’ with water and noticed that it solidified.

Samantha Naranjo discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored in the dilapidated building for more than a year.

She told KRDO, “We were hurt, we were frustrated, now we’re angry. We want justice. Not just for us, but for all those victims. Each of them.

“Their family deserves peace, the community deserves justice.”

Jon Hallford was released from the El Paso County Jail in late January after posting $100,000 bail. Carie Hallford remained in jail Thursday on a $100,000 bond.

Carie Hallford will appear in court for a hearing on March 21.