Piles of Bodies, Spurious Ashes and Fraud: The Nightmare Uncovered in The Funeral House of Horrors
Families who entrusted Return to Nature Funeral House with their cherished ones' stays believe been devastated to gather out that no longer getting the inexperienced burial they paid for was as soon as the least of the desecration.
When a cherished one dies, facing the loss itself is no longer easy ample.
Shut to 200 households who entrusted their cherished ones' stays to the Return to Nature Funeral House in Colorado stumbled on out it will also rep loads worse.
“I will't gather my son because I don't know what they did with him,” Heather DeWolf, whose son Zach DeWolf died in 2020, said in Investigation Discovery's The Irregular Case of…The Funeral House of Horrors, which delved into the case of funeral dwelling house owners Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford's haunting mismanagement of Return to Nature. “I trusted them to be the folk that believe been to blame for my son's bodily presence, for his closing moments on this earth. All of us trusted them.”
As Angelika Stedman, who lost daughter Chanel in 2019, save it in the ID existing: “The cremains I got—is it my daughter or cement?”
While it stays unclear how their endeavor spun so bizarrely out of regulate, Jon and Carie every pleaded guilty closing Three hundred and sixty five days to 191 counts apiece of abuse of a corpse. Per the terms of their respective plea deals, constant with the Colorado Sun, Jon agreed to a 20-Three hundred and sixty five days detention heart sentence, whereas Carie is facing 15 to twenty years.
El Paso District Court docket Judge Eric Bentley said that, also can silent the plea deals be formally adopted, sentencing will rob situation on April 18.
E! Recordsdata reached out to Jon and Carie's respective attorneys however did no longer hear again. (Jon is represented by a federal public defender, whose situation of job every so regularly does no longer observation on conditions.)
In entering his plea, Jon admitted at a Nov. 22 court docket listening to that he “knowingly handled the bodies or stays of 190 participants in a system that will outrage long-established family sensibility.”
Carie said in court docket that, whereas she hadn't been within the Return to Nature constructing for a Three hundred and sixty five days whereas conditions deteriorated, she did know what was as soon as happening within its walls.
“I knew ample that I knew how poor it was as soon as and selected to elevate out nothing about it or cease it,” she said, “and factual allowed it to continue.”
But what did the Hallfords elevate out that no longer handiest brought on a multi-company investigation, however moreover triggered contemporary declare legislation—signed in May possibly well moreover 2024—requiring stricter licensing requirements for funeral administrators, morticians, embalmers and cremationists working in Colorado?
And what took place to those 191 bodies?
What Turned into as soon as the Return to Nature Funeral House?
The Return to Nature Funeral House’s internet site (which is no longer active) explained that it equipped cremation products and services and inexperienced burials.
A growing trend in postmortem preparations, a inexperienced burial methodology no chemicals—namely embalming fluid—are aged on the corpse, thereby purportedly allowing a body to decompose naturally and harmoniously change into one with the earth.
“Green Burial is a pure design of caring to your cherished one with minimal environmental affect,” the internet site said, per NBC Recordsdata. The positioning assured: “Green Burial aids in the conservation of pure resources, low cost of carbon emissions and the preservation of habitat, WITHOUT the train of harsh embalming chemicals, metallic, plastic or unnatural items.”
The positioning detailed that their burials utilized biodegradable caskets (no metallic) or shrouds—or, “nothing in any admire.”
Their products and services, with out add-ons comparable to a casket, began at $1,895.
Who Are Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford?
Jon Hallford and his fourth wife, Carie Hallford, got a license and opened Return to Nature Funeral House in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2017.
They opened one other facility in Penrose, a runt metropolis southwest of Colorado Springs, in 2019.
Court docket paperwork got by the Associated Press showed Return to Nature was as soon as evicted from its constructing in Colorado Springs in May possibly well moreover 2023 and, constant with its extinct landlord, owed $120,000 in again lease.
And it was out that Jon, a Third-technology funeral dwelling director from Oklahoma, had an strange skeleton in his closet as effectively.
He lost a toddle for Muskogee City Council in May possibly well moreover 2006 after pleading guilty the outdated month to a misdemeanor firearm rate. In accordance to The Tulsa World, he was as soon as accused along with two other men of donning masks and bursting in on a community of young females having a sleepover whereas brandishing weapons and pretending they believe been robbers.
“This [happened] closing August, and here it’s moments sooner than the election and payments are filed, and now it's a area,” Jon immediate the e-newsletter in March 2006. He admitted he had confirmed “very poor judgment” in taking part in the prank.
Jon was as soon as moreover serious a pair of lot of civil disputes sooner than leaving Oklahoma, and was as soon as ordered to pay $8,000 to Creditors Restoration Corporation in 2006, constant with court docket info got by the Denver Gazette.
Public info reviewed by the AP in 2023 showed that the Penrose constructing's proprietor, HallfordHomes, owed $5,000 in property taxes from 2022.
What Turned into as soon as Happening Inner the Return to Nature Funeral House?
Indirectly, it was as soon as the scent that drew authorities to Return to Nature in October 2023.
Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies first visited the Penrose facility on the evening of Oct. 3 in response to a “suspicious incident,” constant with a sheriff's situation of job records liberate, after which came again with a search warrant the following day along with investigators from the Colorado Division of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).
Inner the 2,500-square-foot facility, they stumbled on upward of 115 bodies piled up around the advanced, Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper said at an Oct. 6 press conference. Two astronomical refrigerators—where corpses are presupposed to be saved in the occasion that they're no longer buried or embalmed within 24 hours, per Colorado legislation—believe been no longer functioning properly and the bodies believe been decomposing at room temperature.
Were There Indicators of Grief at Return to Nature?
A suspension letter from the Colorado Situation of enterprise of Funeral House and Crematory Registration dated Oct. 5, 2023, and posted by the Denver Gazette infamous that Jon had acknowledged a “notify” at the ability when contacted by the placement of job's director on Oct. 4 and said he'd been doing taxidermy on the premises.
The letter infamous that the ability was as soon as registered up unless November 2022 and accused Jon of looking to veil the deplorable storage of corpses.
In June 2023, per the Denver Post, an El Paso County mediate entered a $21,000 judgment against Return to Nature for failure to pay one other industry for cremation products and services.
The funeral dwelling silent issued demise certificates thru August 2023, FBI Particular Agent Andrew Cohen said in a Nov. 7, 2023, affidavit detailing possible cause for Jon's arrest. He moreover said in the affidavit that there was as soon as no sage of declare regulators ever inspecting the Penrose facility ultimately of its duration of operation.
“We're the laughing stock,” Blanca Eberhardt, a mortician who works with the declare's emergency preparedness crew, said on ID's The Irregular Case of…The Funeral House of Horrors. She known because it a working shaggy dog myth that “can believe to it’s possible you’ll presumably presumably also't trot your boards or [you] lose your license in a single other declare, pass to Colorado.”
Tighter law also can no longer cease any mishandling of bodies, however most more than likely, Nationwide Funeral Administrators Association general counsel Chris Farmer immediate the AP in 2023, “You to find it at six or eight bodies and no longer at 115.”
What Came about to the Bodies Stumbled on at Return to Nature?
Following the “horrific” and “nerve-racking” discovery, as Sheriff Cooper save it, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said it will also rob months to title the bodies thru fingerprinting, DNA sorting out or dental info, after which their households might maybe presumably be contacted as soon as that it’s possible you’ll presumably presumably also remember.
“We can elevate out all the pieces in our vitality to return their cherished ones to them as rapidly as that it’s possible you’ll presumably presumably also remember,” El Paso County Coroner Leon Kelly said in a assertion at the time. “The astronomical number and condition of these stays will develop this engaging.”
FBI groups focusing on mass-casualty failures, comparable to plane crashes and 9/11, believe been brought in to reduction project the scene, along with a pair of declare and native agencies.
Upon listening to about the grotesque discovery, folk that'd entrusted their deceased cherished ones' bodies ro Return to Nature for cremation products and services and believe been silent waiting for the stays wondered if their family believe been amongst the stacks of corpses.
“With out warning it’s esteem, ‘Oh my God’, I’ve lost him in each place another time,” Mary Simons, whose husband had died of pneumonia in August 2023, immediate the AP. “It's esteem the grieving project is initiating in each place another time.”
The Fremont County Sheriff's Situation of enterprise up so far the recovered body depend on Oct. 17, 2023, to “no longer no longer as much as 189.”
The stays stumbled on belonged to adults, children and fetuses, FBI Agent Cohen testified at a Jan. 11, 2024, listening to after prison payments believe been filed against the Hallfords. He said that 23 of the bodies dated again to 2019, whereas 61 believe been from 2020. Plenty of dozen gadgets of stays had yet to be identified, he testified.
“It regarded esteem something you’d esteem to neglect however can’t,” Cohen said, per the AP, recalling the nerve-racking conditions authorities witnessed, including flies and maggots ultimately of the constructing and bodily fluids on the floor.
Additionally ultimately of the listening to, prosecutors referenced text messages between Jon and Carie that indicated he was as soon as interesting about being stumbled on out as far again as 2020.
“My one and handiest focal point is conserving us out of penal advanced,” he wrote to his wife, constant with the prosecution.
One more purported text from Jon to Carie perceived to focus on ways to save away with the bodies, constant with DA's Situation of enterprise investigator Kevin Clark. It learn: “Options: A, own a brand contemporary machine ASAP. B, dig a colossal gap and train lye. The save? C, dig a runt gap and own a astronomical fire. The save? D, I will detention heart, which is potentially going to happen.”
Who Are the Families That Sent Their Deceased Cherished Ones to Return to Nature for Burial or Cremation?
To boot to the bodies that had piled up, investigators sure that the house had returned floor-up concrete as an different of ashes to some of the deceased's households.
Angelika Stedman, whose daughter Chanel died on Nov. 23, 2019, “took pretty bit” of what she had been immediate was as soon as her runt one's ashes and added water, she said in ID's The Irregular Case of… episode. “It solidified esteem cement does…It was as soon as esteem a knife being stabbed in my coronary heart and zigzag. The save is my daughter?”
FBI Agent Cohen testified at the 2024 listening to that investigators stumbled on animal stays and baggage of packaged concrete at the Return to Nature facility.
Crystina Web screech opinion she was as soon as carrying her son David Jackson Web screech's ashes in the pendant she'd stale around her neck since his demise in 2019. David was as soon as 20 when he was as soon as fatally shot by legislation enforcement, and Crystina had moreover been toting ashes in a red urn in each place the country whereas advocating for police reform.
As an different, she realized on Oct. 24, 2023, that David's body was as soon as amongst the pile-up at the funeral dwelling, she said in the existing. “The coroner immediate me that my son was as soon as left in the constructing uncovered and uncovered,” Crystina said. “He was as soon as dumped out of his body rep…into the corner of an inoperable fridge after which covered with dozens of bodies, after which left there to rot for four years.”
Heather DeWolf, whose son Zachary Alexander DeWolf died in 2020, said in the existing that she and Zach's brothers took a more in-depth look at the ashes she got from Return to Nature and stumbled on metallic discs.
“My son had no clinical gadgets internal of his body,” she said. “I remember I surely believe somebody else. I remember these ashes are human, however I remember they aren’t my human. If I surely believe somebody else's cherished one, where's my son? Who has my son?”
What Came about to the Owners of Return to Nature?
Jon and Carie fled Colorado for Oklahoma after authorities closed in on Return to Nature, alleged a federal affidavit filed in November 2023.
The couple believe been arrested in Wagoner, Okla., on a warrant issued in Colorado accusing them of 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and 50-plus counts of forgery.
Licensed knowledgeable for the 4th Judicial District Michael Allen immediate newshounds in asserting the payments Nov. 6 in Colorado Springs that more runt print would no longer be drawing shut to give protection to the continuing investigation, however that the charging paperwork believe been “completely ravishing.”
Crystina Web screech, toting her red urn, was as soon as at the press conference, where she said, per the AP, “For four years, I’ve marched in each place this country with this urn believing it to be my son. My son has been laying there rotting for four years…It’s the most horrendous feeling I’ve ever had in my existence.”
The arrests, she added, “makes it in actuality feel esteem there’s an end in scrutinize.”
In April 2024, the Hallfords believe been indicted on federal fraud payments for allegedly spending nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds on non-public trips, jewelry, beauty surgical operation and other non-industry payments, constant with the indictment unsealed that month. They believe been moreover accused in the indictment of accepting $130,000 for burial and cremation products and services they by no methodology equipped and on no longer no longer as much as twice burying the nasty body.
The save Are Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford Now?
In their federal case, Jon and Carie pleaded guilty in October 2024 to a depend apiece of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, constant with the U.S. Licensed knowledgeable’s Situation of enterprise for the District of Colorado. Their plea agreement stipulated that they admit to taking part in pandemic relief fraud and defrauding customers; in substitute, prosecutors wouldn't look more than 15 years in detention heart for every.
As for their Colorado case, they every pleaded guilty in November 2024 to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, for the 189 decaying bodies and two errant burials, constant with the AP. Per the terms of their plea deals, the opposite payments against them believe been dropped.
E! Recordsdata reached out to Jon and Carie's respective attorneys however did no longer hear again. Jon has been represented by a federal public defender, whose situation of job every so regularly does no longer observation on conditions.
Prosecutors believe instructed a 20-Three hundred and sixty five days detention heart sentence for Jon and 15 to twenty years for Carie. They're scheduled to be sentenced on April 18, 2025.
Source credit : eonline.com
