The Colorado couple who owned a funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were discovered last year were ordered to pay $950m to the victims’ families – a largely symbolic victory for families of the deceased.
According to an email sent to victims by Leventhal Lewis, the firm that filed the lawsuit, it is the largest judgment in Colorado’s history.
The judgment is unlikely to be paid out, since the funeral home was long plagued by financial difficulties. However, Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature funeral home, still face criminal charges in a separate case.
“I’m never going to get a dime from them, so, I don’t know, it’s a little frustrating,” said Crystina Page, who had hired the funeral home to cremate her son’s remains in 2019.
She carried the urn she thought held his ashes until the news arrived that his body had been identified in the Return to Nature facility, four years after his death. “If nothing else,” she said, this judgement “will bring more understanding to the case.”
“I’m hoping it’ll make people go, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t just about ashes.’”
Investigators discovered nearly 200 stacked and decaying bodies at the funeral home in Penrose, Colorado in October last year. The Hallfords allegedly fled Colorado to avoid prosecution and were arrested in Oklahoma in November. The couple were charged with about 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and more than 50 counts of forgery.
The Hallfords had long been beset by financial troubles that included missed tax payments and an eviction.
The attorney representing the families, Andrew Swan, told the Associated Press that the Hallfords did not acknowledge or attend hearings for the civil case. Jon Hallford is in custody and Carie Hallford is out on bail.
“I would have preferred that they participate, if only because I wanted to put them on the witness stand, have them put under oath and ask them how they came to do this, not once, not twice, but hundreds of times,” said Swan.
Page said it felt like another slap in the face from the Hallfords.
Earlier this year, federal officials indicted the Hallfords for fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds, which they used to purchase cars, vacations, tuition for their child, cryptocurrency and cosmetic procedures. The couple had also accepted $130,000 in payments from families for services they never provided.
Colorado has some of the laxest regulations for funeral homes in the country, but the case has spurred bipartisan legislation to implement licensing requirements. Currently, Colorado funeral home operators are not required to be licensed, have a degree in mortuary science or even graduate high school.
However, a law passed in May, which will go into effect in 2026, will require funeral home operators to hold a mortuary science degree, pass a national board examination, complete a one-year apprenticeship and pass a criminal background check.
