Family sues Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were found for allowing their loved ones to ‘rot’ away and then handing over CEMENT DUST instead of ashes
Outraged families have filed suit against a Colorado funeral home after it allegedly sent them fake ashes of relatives while they left bodies to rot.
The lawsuit comes weeks after a staggering 189 bodies were discovered at the Return to Nature facility over the past month – after a neighbor reported a “repulsive odor” coming from the building, about 100 miles south of Denver.
Law enforcement officials have begun identifying the rotting remains – some of which, forensics have revealed, were left years after they were allegedly cremated and ostensibly sent as ashes to grieving relatives.
Several people have since been notified that their loved ones were among the bodies, prompting a new class action lawsuit that names owners Jon and Carie Hallford as plaintiffs.
Among those who received the news was Abby Swoveland, who says she believes the house gave her cement dust instead of her mother’s ashes. Richard Law, whose father died of COVID three years ago, also discovered his relative among the bodies.
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Families have filed suit against Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado after owners Jon Hallford and wife Carrie allegedly sent families fake ashes while they left bodies to rot
The FBI responded to the facility — located about 100 miles south of Denver — on Oct. 4 after receiving reports of a foul odor coming from the home. Crews were then filmed removing bodies – and have now started notifying families
Among those who received the news was Abby Swoveland, who is seen sitting with what the funeral home owners said were the ashes of her mother Sara Lee Swoveland.
Swoveland said she strongly believes the Penrose facility gave her cement dust instead of her mother Sara Lee Swoveland’s ashes.
“I am completely convinced that what I have is actually a bag of cement powder,” she said in a video interview with AP. “It’s not ash.”
She made a bag from the material yet to be tested and displayed her mother’s death certificate and a series of photos of them in happier times.
The FBI informed her late last month that her mother was among the nearly 200 people found in the home on October 4. Some of them had been dead for years.
As of Wednesday, it remains unclear when Swoveland’s relative died.
That’s not the case with Law, who says he paid more than $1,300 to cremate his father after his COVID-related death in November 2020.
Receipts show he was also charged an additional $85 as a so-called COVID surcharge to ensure the remains were handled safely.
Instead, on October 19, almost three years after he thought his father had been buried, he received a call from the FBI informing him how he was found at the funeral home.
Richard said of his late father Roger: “For almost three years, Return to Nature Funeral Home and the Hallfords left my father to rot along with almost two hundred others,” he said.
Swoveland showed a series of photos of her and her mother in happier times
She believes a bag of “ashes” sent to her by Return to Nature Funeral Home was actually cement
Swoveland showed her mother’s death certificate, but it remains unclear when she died
Richard Law’s father (center), Roger (left), who died of COVID three years ago, was among the nearly 200 bodies
Richard said of his late father Roger: ‘For almost three years Return to Nature Funeral Home and the Hallfords left my father to rot along with almost 200 others’
An attorney representing families noted in a statement, “Even as bodies piled up at the funeral home, Jon and Carie Hallford continued to take custody of more and more bodies.
“After their deaths, these men and women deserved to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead they were defiled,” lawyer Andrew Swan added.
Earlier this month, many reports emerged that the funeral home appeared to have fabricated cremation details and possibly given fake ashes to families.
Law, the first to file charges, sent his father’s remains to Return to Nature in 2020.
As was the case with the Swovelands, the funeral home claimed to have cremated his father, and sent the younger Law what appeared to be ashes.
Like Swoveland, Law has not said whether he had the remains tested.
Law was quoted in a news release saying he was “honored to stand up on behalf of” his father and the other 188 victims.
Tanya Wilson also believes her mother’s ashes she spread in Hawaii in August were fake
“My mother’s dying wish was that her remains would be scattered in a place she loved, and not rot in a building,” she said last week.
“Any peace that we had, thinking that we had respected her wishes, was just completely taken away from us.”
The FBI sent crews to the funeral home last month as part of the investigation. An attorney representing families noted in a statement, “Even as bodies piled up at the funeral home, (Jon and Carie Hallford) continued to take custody of more and more bodies.
“After their deaths, these men and women deserved to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead they were defiled,” lawyer Andrew Swan added
As for Halford, a licensed funeral director, he opened the family-run funeral home in 2017 and called it a green-friendly business at the time. Neither he nor his wife have been charged.
The El Paso County Coroner’s Office, the agency charged with analyzing the mass of carcasses, said last week that most of the bodies have been identified — while an unspecified amount remains up in the air.
All of the deceased were removed from the funeral home on October 13 and transported to the coroner for analysis – and more families could still come forward to join the lawsuit.
As for Halford, a licensed funeral director, he opened the family-run funeral home in 2017 and called it a green-friendly business at the time. Neither he nor his wife have been charged.
Calls and texts to numbers belonging to Return to Nature and the owners have gone unanswered since the discovery of the rotting bodies.
No arrests have been made.