A federal judge has canceled an October trial date and set a change-of-plea hearing in a fraud case involving the owners of a Colorado funeral home where authorities discovered 190 decaying bodies.
Jon and Carie Hallford were indicted in April on fraud charges, accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, jewelry and other personal expenses.
They own the Return to Nature Funeral Home based in Colorado Springs and in Penrose, where the bodies were found.
The indictment alleges that the Hallfords gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and buried the wrong body on two occasions.
The couple also allegedly collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided.
Jon and Carie Hallford were indicted in April on fraud charges, accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, jewelry and other personal expenses
The 15 charges brought by the federal grand jury are separate from the more than 200 criminal counts pending against the Hallfords in state court for corpse abuse, money laundering, theft and forgery.
In August, a judge ordered the Hallfords to pay $950 million to the families.
Carie Hallford filed a statement with the court Thursday saying ‘a disposition has been reached in the instant case’ and asking for a change-of-plea hearing.
Jon Hallford’s request said he wanted a hearing ‘for the court to consider the proposed plea agreement.’
The judge granted their request to vacate the October 15 trial date and all related dates and deadlines. The change-of-plea hearings were set for October 24.
The Hallford’s funeral home promised families a more natural burial, offering to bury bodies without embalming fluids or metal caskets if families opted not to have remains cremated.
Relatives would pay upwards of $1,200 for an eco-friendly end, which also came with the promise of a tree planting in the Colorado National Forest.
But last November, investigators found almost 200 bodies in ‘abhorrent conditions’ inside the property, which had been left at room temperature to rot.
The bodies were found after neighbors issued complaints over a ‘dead animal smell’ covering the area around the funeral home.
Some of the bodies had been in the maggot-infested building for years before they were discovered following reports of a foul odor.
By the time of the raid it owed more than $120,000 in unpaid bills and had been repeatedly taken to court over unpaid wages and disputes with local medical centers.
When they were charged, investigators claimed the couple used money from the families to buy two vehicles worth over $120,000.
The couple’s funeral home promised an eco-friendly final act for relatives, who would pay upwards of $1,200 for amenities including tree planting in the Colorado National Forest
In addition to their funeral home, they used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose as a body storage facility, prosecutors say.
In April, it was also alleged by federal prosecutors that the Hallfords lied to obtain $882,3000 in relief funds, which they spent on themselves instead of their business.
Samantha Naranjo (right) discovered that the body of mother Dorothy had been warehoused for more than a year in the dilapidated building
CO DA holds press conference on the Return to Nature Funeral Home
At a pre-trial hearing earlier this year, FBI Agent Andrew Cohen testified that money, an adjustment to a pandemic-era small business loan given to the Hallfords, was fraudulently obtained after Hallford lied by saying he was not behind on child support payments.
At an earlier hearing for Carie Hallford, prosecutors presented texts suggesting that she and her husband tried to cover up their financial difficulties by leaving the bodies at the Penrose site.
Relatives said they raised their suspicions with the couple but were ignored or brushed off by them every time.
When the family of retired Army officer Tanya Wilson received her ashes, her brother Elliot thought they were unusually heavy and confronted Carie Hallford.
When he took them to a nearby funeral director he was told ‘I’ve never seen anything that looks like that in the range of what cremated remains would typically expect to look like.’
Chrystina Page, right, holds back Heather De Wolf, as she yells at Jon Hallford, left, as he leaves with his lawyers following a preliminary hearing, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024
Two families were so suspicious they mixed the ‘ashes’ with water and found that they solidified.
Samantha Naranjo discovered that the body of mother Dorothy had been warehoused for more than a year in the dilapidated building.
She told KRDO: ‘We were hurt, we were frustrated, now we’re angry. We want justice. Not just for us, but every single one of those victims. Every one of them.
‘Their family deserves to be at peace, the community deserves justice.’
