COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (TNND) — For years, people trusted a Colorado funeral home to care for their loved ones with dignity. Instead, authorities uncovered a web of horrifying lies.
A judge on Friday sentenced Jon Hallford, the owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, to 40 years behind bars for a scheme that left 189 bodies decomposing inside a building while grieving families were given fake ashes to take home, scatter, and cherish.
FILE – Chrystina Page, right, holds back Heather De Wolf, as she yells at Jon Hallford, left, the owner of Back to Nature Funeral Home, as he leaves with his lawyers following a preliminary hearing, Feb. 8, 2024, outside the El Paso County Judicial Building, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP, File)
Inside the courtroom, the damage Hallford left behind was palpable.
Family members told Judge Eric Bentley they are haunted by recurring nightmares, including visions of rotting flesh, swarming maggots, and the terrifying realization that their loved ones were left to decay rather than laid to rest.
They called Hallford a “monster” and begged the judge to impose the maximum 50-year sentence.
Bentley said Hallford’s actions caused “unspeakable and incomprehensible” harm.
“It is my personal belief that every one of us, every human being, is basically good at the core, but we live in a world that tests that belief every day, and Mr. Hallford your crimes are testing that belief,” Bentley said.
Before sentencing, Hallford apologized.
“I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said. “My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”
Investigators said Hallford stored bodies — including adults, infants, and fetuses — inside a building in the small town of Penrose, south of Colorado Springs, from 2019 and 2023. The remains were left at room temperature, stacked atop one another, as decomposition fluids pooled on the floors and insects swarmed the space.
FILE – Fremont County coroner Randy Keller, center, and other authorities survey the area where they plan to put up tents at the Return to Nature Funeral Home where over 100 bodies have been improperly stored, Oct. 7, 2023, in Penrose, Colo. (Parker Seibold/The Gazette via AP, File)
Authorities discovered the scene after they responded to the scene following reports of a foul stench.
It took months to identify the bodies through fingerprints, DNA, and other methods.
Prosecutors said families were given dry concrete made to resemble cremated remains, a deception that shattered the grieving process once the truth emerged.
One of the most emotional moments came from Kelly Mackeen, whose mother’s remains were entrusted to Return to Nature.
“I’m a daughter whose mother was treated like yesterday’s trash and dumped in a site left to rot with hundreds of others,” Mackeen said. “I’m heartbroken, and I ask God every day for grace.”
Many families said learning that the ashes they kept in urns or scattered in meaningful places were not their loved ones reopened wounds they thought had healed. Some described overwhelming guilt.
Derrick Johnson, whose mother’s body was one of 189 left to decay in the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., walks toward the El Paso County Courthouse for owner Jon Hallford’s sentencing in Colorado Springs, Colo., Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Prosecutors said the crimes were driven by greed.
While bodies piled up, court records show Hallford spent lavishly, as he bought luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, designer goods from Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and even laser body sculpting treatments.
“Clearly, this is a crime motivated by greed,” prosecutor Shelby Crow said.
Hallford charged families more than $1,200 each. Crow said the money he spent on luxury items could have paid to cremate every body many times over.
Jon Hallford and his former wife, Carie Hallford, pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse. Carie Hallford, who co-owned the funeral home, is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 and faces 25 to 35 years in prison.
The Hallfords also pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges after prosecutors said they cheated the government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid. Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison in that case, and Carie Hallford’s sentencing is pending.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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