The owners of a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200 bodies were found rotting have been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to the families of abandoned loved ones.
Jon and Carie Hallford, a married couple in their 40s, were arrested last November after decomposing bodies were found in their Return to Nature Funeral Home.
The couple currently faces a number of charges, including abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery. The families filed a class action lawsuit this week, which has been resolved.
But Andrew Swan, a lawyer representing the victims, admitted the owners could not afford to pay the amount.
“I’m never going to get a dime from them, so I don’t know, it’s a little frustrating,” said Crystina Page, who hired the funeral home to cremate her son’s remains in 2019. “This ruling will at least bring more understanding to the case,” Page said.
Jon and Carie Hallford face 250 charges of forgery, theft, money laundering and abuse of a corpse after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were discovered in their funeral home
This week, a judge ordered the owners of Nature Funeral Home (pictured) to pay $950 million to the families of their alleged victims
On Monday, a judge ordered the Hallfords to pay $950 million to the families.
After the judge ordered the couple to pay a staggering sum, Swan said he hopes the outcome will serve as an example.
“We hope the ruling sends an unmistakable message to the industry: misconduct has serious consequences,” he said. NPR.
While the families could attempt to collect the court-ordered payment, Swan clarified that “it is unfortunately unlikely that the defendants have significant assets.”
Before the alleged plot was discovered, families claimed they had even received urns containing the alleged ashes of their loved ones, which were said to be made of “concrete grit.”
Their funeral home promised a more natural burial, offering to bury bodies without embalming fluids or metal caskets if families chose not to have the remains cremated.
Relatives paid more than $1,200 for an environmental cause, with the promise that trees would be planted in the Colorado National Forest.
The couple’s funeral home promised an environmentally friendly final act for the bereaved, who would pay more than $1,200 for provisions including planting trees in the Colorado National Forest
Chrystina Page, right, holds Heather De Wolf back as she yells at Jon Hallford, left, as he leaves with his lawyers after a preliminary hearing, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024
But last November, investigators found nearly 200 bodies in “appalling conditions” at the property, left to rot at room temperature.
The bodies were found after neighbors complained about a “smell of dead animals” in the area surrounding the funeral home.
Some of the bodies had been in the maggot-infested building for years before they were discovered after reports of a foul odor.
At the time of the raid, the company had overdue bills of more than $120,000 and had been repeatedly sued over unpaid wages and disputes with local medical centers.
When they were charged, investigators alleged the couple used family money to purchase two vehicles worth more than $120,000.
Prosecutors say that in addition to their funeral home, they also used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose to store their bodies.
In April, federal prosecutors also alleged that the Hallfords lied to obtain $882,300 in disaster aid, which they spent on themselves instead of on their business.
Samantha Naranjo (right) discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored in the dilapidated building for more than a year
At a preliminary hearing earlier this year, FBI agent Andrew Cohen testified that the money, a modification of a small business loan made to the Hallfords during the pandemic, was obtained fraudulently after Hallford lied by saying he was not behind on alimony payments.
At an earlier hearing for Carie Hallford, prosecutors presented texts showing she and her husband tried to cover up their financial problems by leaving the bodies at the Penrose location.
Family members said they had raised their suspicions with the couple, but were repeatedly ignored or brushed off.
When the family of retired Army officer Tanya Wilson received her ashes, her brother Elliot found them unusually heavy and confronted Carie Hallford about them.
When he took them to a nearby funeral home, he was told, “I’ve never seen anything that looked like what cremated remains usually look like.”
Two families were so suspicious that they mixed the ‘ashes’ with water and discovered that the ashes solidified.
Samantha Naranjo discovered that mother Dorothy’s body had been stored in the dilapidated building for over a year.
She told KRDO, “We were hurt, we were frustrated, now we’re angry. We want justice. Not just for ourselves, but for each of those victims. Every single one of them.
“Their family deserves peace, the community deserves justice.”