In a disturbing tale of deceit and decay, a funeral home scandal in Colorado reaches its climax with the owner sentenced to 20 years behind bars for neglecting 190 bodies.
At a Glance
● Jon Hallford, owner of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for COVID-19 relief fund fraud.
● The sentence follows the horrific discovery of 191 decomposing bodies improperly stored at his facility in Penrose, Colorado.
● Hallford defrauded families by charging for cremations he never performed, instead giving them fake ashes.
● He and his wife used nearly $900,000 in fraudulent COVID relief loans to fund a lavish lifestyle.
● His wife, Carie Hallford, still faces trial on related state and federal charges.
A Maximum Sentence for a “Historic” Crime
Jon Hallford, the owner of the now-infamous Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado, was sentenced on Friday, June 27, 2025, to the maximum of 20 years in federal prison. The sentence was not for the horrific mishandling of bodies but for separate charges of fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
“This is not an ordinary fraud case,” U.S. District Judge Nina Wang said during the sentencing, acknowledging the immense pain Hallford inflicted on hundreds of grieving families. The federal sentence comes after Hallford was already sentenced to 20 to 24 years in a Colorado state prison for the charges related to the abuse of corpses.
A Tale of Deceit and Decay
The shocking case unraveled in October 2023 when authorities, responding to reports of a foul odor, discovered 191
decomposing bodies being stored in squalid conditions at Hallford’s facility in Penrose, Colorado. The investigation revealed that Hallford and his wife, Carie, had been collecting payments of up to $1,395 for cremations and burials that were never performed. Instead, they gave the grieving families urns filled with dry concrete mix or other materials.
The case is considered one of the worst of its kind in Colorado history, a “historic breach of duty,” as one prosecutor put it. The story of the sentencing was shared widely by news outlets, including on the Facebook page for WXII 12 News.
From COVID Funds to Luxury Goods
The federal case against Hallford detailed a stunning level of greed. While he was neglecting the bodies of the deceased and defrauding their families, he and his wife were applying for and receiving three fraudulent loans from the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 relief program.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, they used the nearly $900,000 in taxpayer money to purchase two SUVs, a truck, cryptocurrency, and luxury goods from Gucci and Tiffany & Co. “I am so deeply sorry for my actions,” Hallford said in court, an apology that provided little comfort to the dozens of victim family members present. The sentencing was quickly reported by outlets like News on 6 on X.com,as the nation watched the climax of the horrific case.
