Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 18 years after 190 bodies left to decompose
A Colorado funeral home owner who admitted that at least 190 bodies were left to decompose instead of being cremated or buried has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, according to prosecutors. She also admitted to defrauding the government through fraudulent COVID-relief loan applications.
Carie Hallford, 49, of Colorado Springs, was sentenced Monday in federal court in Colorado. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said she was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $1,070,413.74 in restitution.
Hallford owned and operated Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs and Penrose with her then-husband and co-defendant, Jon Hallford.
Prosecutors said that from as early as September 2019 through October 2023, the couple failed to cremate or bury at least 190 bodies even though they had collected more than $130,000 from families for funeral services that were never provided.
According to Hallford’s plea agreement, she handled much of the funeral home’s banking, invoicing, customer contracts, bookkeeping and communications with families.
Prosecutors said she and her former husband also prepared death certificates and filed them with the state, falsely listing cremation or burial as the method of disposition for many of the bodies later found at the Penrose property.
Prosecutors also said Hallford and her husband conspired to defraud the Small Business Administration from March 2020 to March 2022 by submitting false loan applications for COVID-relief funds. The scheme brought in three disbursements totaling $882,300 through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Federal and state officials searched the Penrose location on October 5, 2023, and found multiple decomposing bodies in hazardous conditions, prosecutors said.
Authorities said the environment was so toxic that first responders used hazmat suits and decontamination procedures, and the EPA later condemned and demolished the building as a toxic waste site.
Jon Hallford was sentenced in June 2025 to 20 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay the same restitution amount.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
