True Crime Society - 189 bodies left to rot in the Return to Nature Funeral Home

Today we are going to discuss the case of Jon and Carie Hallford, owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado.

The couple are accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering money and forging documents. Almost 200 bodies were found stacked improperly and decomposing in their funeral home. Some had been there for years.

The Return to Nature Funeral Home was established in 2016. The website – returntonaturecolorado.com has been taken down, but it is on the wayback machine archive.

GREEN BURIAL COLORADO – The Pine Box Company

Available 24 Hours a Day 719-475-0583

*AS OF July 2023, Return to Nature NO LONGER offers Cremation Services.

We WILL HONOR existing pre-arrangements for Direct Cremation ONLY

Our Mission has ALWAYS been Green Burial…

Return to Nature Funeral Home is a unique Family Owned and Operated Colorado Springs & Penrose mortuary service. We operate with three generations of Funeral Service Experience and Education. Our Family is here to serve your Family and guide You through every step of the bereavement process. We cater to Your Family and provide Your Loved One with the utmost Professional Care and Discretion. Our Family Serving Your Family, for over 80 years.

Green / Natural Burial is a return to the traditional way of burial. No chemicals, metal or unnatural materials. Just you and the Earth, returning to nature. Interment of the bodies is done in a biodegradable casket, basket, shroud, or even nothing at all. No embalming fluid, no concrete vaults. As natural as possible.

We Have TWO Local Cemeteries right here in Colorado Springs that Allow for Green Burial. We hope to see more area cemeteries begin to welcome this return to tradition.

From what we have read, I think the company was established in 2016, and in 2017, Jon and Carie opened their Penrose, Colorado location of the funeral home.

Jon spoke about why they opened Return to Nature. “Being chemically embalmed you are transforming your body into a toxic substance for all of eternity,” Jon said.

In 2021, the Penrose location was purchased by Hallfordhomes LLC for $200,000. Hallfordhomes LLC. Essentially, Hallfordhomes LLC owns the property of the funeral home, while Jon and Carie operated the business.

In November 2022, the license of the funeral home expired.

There is an article from KOAA.com that outlines what is required in Colorado in terms of licensing for a funeral home or funeral director.

The President of the Colorado Funeral Directors, Joseph Walsh, said there is no specific license required for people working in funeral homes. People working in funeral homes do not need a certificate, education or license. Instead, it is the funeral home itself that is required to renew their license every year.

Michael Hendry is the General Manager of the Holt Family Funeral Home in Canon City.

“In the state of Colorado we are very unique; we do not require licensing for funeral directors or education requirements for funeral directors,” Hendry said.

Hendry has a degree in mortuary science, but in the state of Colorado, it’s not a requirement. He said, even though it is not a requirement, many of the funeral home directors he knows, do have a degree in mortuary science.

Hendry said according to state regulations, one of five things must happen within 24 hours of someone passing away.

“So an individual has to be embalmed, refrigerated, cremated, buried or donated to science,” Hendry said.

A law was passed in Spring 2023 allowing the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies to inspect funeral homes. Before this year the department did not have authorization to do so.

In early 2023, some financial and legal issues against the Hallford’s emerged. According to public records, they missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills by a crematory that had quit doing business with them.

That crematory was Wilbert Funeral Services. They cut ties with Return to Nature in November 2022. In March 2023, Wilbert Funeral Services filed a suit against against Hallfordhomes, LLC and Carie and Jon Hallford, it won after court records show the Hallfords did not attend the court hearing. The records show the Hallfords owed the company more than $18,000.

The Fremont County Assessor’s Office website states that Hallfordhomes owes $5,385 in property taxes and interest from the 2022 tax year.

In April 2023, Kenney and Company, a property management company serving the Colorado Springs area, filed a civil lawsuit against the Hallfords and Return to Nature Funeral Home. The second civil lawsuit remains active in district court with the most recent filings coming on Sept. 29. 2023.

A third civil lawsuit demanding up to $15,000 in damages was also filed against Hallfordhomes in 2020, but the case was dismissed with prejudice only three months after filing.

In July 2023, Return to Nature stopped offering cremation services.

In October 2023, a complaint was filed against the funeral home after a foul odor was reported as coming from the property.

Jon told authorities that the smell was due to his taxidermy hobby.

This info about the situation is from the affidavit:

On or about October 4, 2023, a Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies

(DORA) investigator spoke with Jon Hallford to gain access to the building. Hallford agreed to meet an inspector at 31 Werner inside of the building for inspection. The owner told DORA he was using the building in Penrose to learn how to do taxidermy and that he knew he had a problem there.

An appointment between DORA and the owner was set for 2:00 p.m on October 4,

2022. However, Hallford failed to show up for the appointment, and this was the last

communication law enforcement had with Jon Hallford.

Authorities entered the funeral home and what they found was described as ‘horrific.’

This info about the condition of the funeral home is from the affidavit:

The conditions within the building were abhorrent; bodies were

located stacked on top of each other and some were not in body bags. Human

decomposition fluids and insects lined the floors. Some of the bodies had dates of

death in 2019, and the positive identification of all of the bodies has been difficult.

Array

Affidavit

Officials said that they estimated the 2500-square-foot building contained about 115 bodies.

After transporting all remains to the El Paso County Coroner’s Office, the number of bodies was raised to 189. I believe the final number of remains was determined to be 190.

Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said that his teams were using fingerprints, dental records and DNA samples to conduct what they expect to be a “very lengthy” identification process that could last several months.

Authorities were said to have taken special care to avoid biohazards after an employee with the county coroner’s office sustained a rash upon initially entering the facility. She made a full recovery after receiving medical treatment.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a verbal disaster declaration in order to free up additional resources for the investigation, an effort that has included both state and federal bureaus of investigation, three county coroners’ offices, the state emergency management agency and state and local police agencies.

Some of the investigators that attended the scene had come from an FBI team that have been dispatched to mass casualty events like 9/11 and airline crashes.

The affidavit goes into detail about phone numbers used by the Hallford’s and how they tracked one of the numbers to Oklahoma, which is where it is believed the couple fled to.

A search warrant was executed at the couple’s home in Colorado Springs on October 17.

The affidavit says The Hallfords were not located at the residence, and items such as their toothbrushes were missing. The landlord for the Hallford’s residence was also contacted, and she

told law enforcement the Hallfords did not make their October rent payment.

A landlord for a property that the couple used sent the couple an eviction notice via email on October 31, 2023. This info about their reply is from the affidavit:

The landlord

sent an eviction notice to the Hallford’s email account, and they replied to indicate

they would not contest the eviction. The Hallfords told the landlord they would not

be able to remove their property and for the landlord to do what he wanted with it. I

submit this behavior is consistent with the Hallford’s flight out of Colorado.

As of November 2023, at least 137 families had been reached – 110 of the dead had been identified, and remains of 25 had been returned to their survivors.

The EPA has concluded the building itself is too full of “biohazards” to ever be reused. In January 2024, the building was demolished.

The couple were arrested in November 2023 in Wagoner, Oklahoma. They were extradited in January 2024.

Jon and Carie are facing 190 corpse abuse counts, over 50 forgery counts, 5 theft counts, & 4 money laundering counts.

A court hearing was held in January 2024, FBI agent Andrew Cohen testified about the gruesome conditions at the building in Penrose, Colorado where the decomposing bodies were found last year, stored at room temperature and stacked on top of one another. Flies and maggots were found throughout the building, he said.

Prosecutors also revealed text messages sent between the Hallfords showing they were under growing financial pressures and had fears that they would be caught for mishandling the bodies. As the bodies accumulated, Jon even suggested getting rid of them by digging a big hole and treating them with lye or setting them on fire, according to the texts presented by the prosecution.

The judge noted that the couple was experimenting with water cremation and thinking of other ways to dispose of the bodies, including burying them with the bodies of others whose families had hired the Hallfords to provide funeral services. They also gave concrete mix to families instead of ashes, the judge said.

Other than Sept. 9 surveillance video showing Jon Hallford moving some bodies, Carie Hallford’s lawyer, Michael Stuzynski, argued there was no evidence that the treatment of the bodies was anything other than “passive neglect.”

Both Jon and Carie have bonded out. Jon was due back in court today, February 8 and Carie is due back in March.

The presiding judge is expected to release the arrest affidavits for both Jon and Carrie Hallford. That will include photos from inside the funeral home where the decomposing remains of nearly 200 people were found.

The prosecution team held this preliminary hearing to bind over money laundering charges that Jon Hallford faces related to the case. The defense said the specific charges should not be considered due to the nature of the way the money was spent.

The only witness the prosecution called to the stand was Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Andrew Cohen, who was one of the special agents assigned to the case and relaid his involvement in the courtroom.

Agent Cohen described the Return to Nature Funeral Home at 31 Werner Road in Penrose as being kept at 70°F and when examining the building, three make-shift cooling devices were made, but were not working. Cohen testified some bodies were wrapped in plastic, some bodies exposed, and a layer of human decomposition fluids and insects covered the floors.

According to Cohen, the oldest body in the building was listed as dying on September 15, 2019, and the most recent body as of August 22, 2023.

Agent Cohen said he examined business bank accounts in the Hallford’s name and showed personal expenses for travel, entertainment, bars, restaurants, and cryptocurrency investment. Cohen said there was a charge for a $1,500 dinner in Las Vegas in February 2022.

After a short recess, Judge William Moller agreed with the prosecution that the willful actions of Jon Hallford during these purchases, and how they could be related to contracts of services not delivered to families as a result of the excess of bodies. Judge Moller bound four charges of money laundering to Hallford as he will make another court appearance on March 21, 2024.

Families of some of the deceased have spoken out.

Marella Canfield-Jones was 38 when she died in October 2019.

A few weeks later, her father collected a small cardboard box from Return to Nature Funeral Home and brought Marella home for the final time. He and his wife placed her remains in a hand-blown glass globe, illuminated letters spelling out “Love.” They grieved and began healing.

The FBI called Marella’s family four years after she died. They learned that she had not been cremated, but that she had been left to rot at Return to Nature.

Marella’s family were told that the ‘remains’ inside the globe were likely cement dust, or someone else’s remains.

“To think that her body was lying there for four years is devastating,” Sheila Canfield-Jones said. “To think the bodies of our loved ones had become biohazards.”

Kelly Bennett’s aunt Janet McGowan died of cancer in 2019, and Bennett, who lives on the East Coast, found Return to Nature online.

Return to Nature had good reviews online and Kelly felt comfortable engaging them to care for her aunt.

“They looked like … a good business,” Kelly said. “They had good reviews, and so we called them when she passed away.”

Jon Hallford and another man went to Janet’s house to collect her body after she died. A few weeks later, the family picked up an urn that was said to contain Janet’s remains and they began their grieving process.

“We went on with our lives, with healing. It was a really traumatic summer to lose her,” Kelly said.

Once they heard the news in 2023 about what had happened in the Return to Nature funeral home, Kelly contacted authorities to see if her aunt was one of the bodies found.

“At this point, we don’t know if we even have my aunt,” she said. “We don’t know if we have cement. We could have someone else, for all we know.”

Abby Swoveland says she believes the home gave her cement dust instead of her mother’s ashes. Abby said she strongly believes the Penrose facility gave her cement dust instead of her mother Sara Lee Swoveland’s ashes.

‘I am completely convinced what I have is actually a bag of powdered cement,’ she said in a video interview with AP. ‘They’re not ashes.’

Jesse Elliott’s mother, Yong Anderson, lived with him and his family in their Woodland Park home in her final years before passing away at the age of 76 in early June.

“My mom didn’t want to be embalmed or have her organs removed, so we had a direct cremation,” Jesse told the media, adding that his family chose Return to Nature funeral home as it had five-star reviews online.

Yong had asked for her remains to be scattered in Hawaii. “She loved it there. She lived her best life there,” said her daughter Tanya Wilson.

Tanya spoke of when Return to Nature had come to pick up her mother.

“When they showed up to pick her up, they seemed respectful,” said Tanya.

But soon after her brother who had handled a lot of the arrangements began to be troubled by some of apparent inaction on the part of the funeral home. It look longer than planned. Then there were explanations that delays were caused by a move of the funeral home. Then when he wanted to pick up her remains the paperwork wasn’t right to complete the cremation one day. The next day everything was suddenly done. But when they called to get the remains, Carie told them not to come pick them up.

“She said that they were in the middle of changing locations and she could either deliver them to Woodland Park or they could coordinate for a place to meet. Which I thought was also strange,” said Tanya

.The owners of Return to Nature were in financial trouble and no longer were working with the crematory that supposedly cremated their mother’s remains.

“We already know that Wilbert Crematory did not cremate our mother. We didn’t receive all the tags and the certificate that normally accompany cremation,” Tanya added.

There were no tags with the remains they received. A request to the funeral home for them was met with a reply that they would be mailed. None were, said Jessie Elliot. Tanya took some of what they received and asked a funeral home in Georgia where she lives if it looked right. They told her it was not consistent with what they’ve seen. She and her daughter compared it with cement from bags at a hardware store. It looked identical.

Crystina Page’s son David was shot and killed in 2019. She had been given her sons remains and she only found in 2023 that his body had been laying in the funeral home the whole time.

“My son [had] been laying there rotting for four years,” she said. “It’s the most horrendous feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”

Some of the families involved have launched a class action lawsuit against the Hallford’s.

The lead plaintiff, Richard Law, said he paid for his father Roger’s cremation in November 2020 and received a small box of what he was told were his father’s ashes.

A longtime local resident, Roger Law had played professional baseball, fought as a U.S. Marine in Okinawa and opened a small chain of shoe stores.

“The Hallfords conduct is so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency,” Richard said in his lawsuit. “It is utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

Roger died in 2020 from Covid. Richard was charged an additional $85 as a so-called COVID upcharge to ensure the remains were safely handled.

An attorney representing families notes in a statement: ‘Even as bodies were piling up inside the funeral home, [Jon and Carie Hallford] continued to assume custody of more and more bodies.

‘In death, these men and women deserved to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead, they were defiled,’ Lawyer Andrew Swan added.