Funeral Home Owner Who Let Bodies Rot Gets 18 Years in Prison

The owner of a Colorado funeral home accused of grossly mishandling human remains will serve approximately 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Carie Hallford, who owned and operated Return to Nature Funeral Home with her husband Jon Hallford, asked the US District Court for the District of Colorado for a 97-month sentence. The 8-year term would have been at the very top of her guidelines range, her sentencing submission said.

The government asked for a 15-year term, the most it could seek under the terms of the plea deal.

Judge Nina Y. Wang rejected both recommendations Monday, instead sentencing Hallford to a term of 216 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Wang signaled early last year that she planned to impose a severe sentence when she rejected the terms of the proposed plea deal, saying the agreement wasn’t “in the public interest.” The judge informed Hallford that she could either withdraw her guilty plea or proceed with her plea without the court being bound by the parties’ sentencing recommendations. Hallford chose to proceed with the plea.

Her sentence will run concurrently with an anticipated sentence in a parallel state case and will serve her federal sentence in a state facility, Wang’s order said.

Jon and Carie Hallford each were charged with 13 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said that instead of burying or cremating human remains, the Hallfords defrauded next of kin by leaving approximately 190 bodies to rot in a facility in Penrose, Colo.

Some families who were expecting to receive cremains instead received concrete mix. On two occasions, the couple buried the wrong remains and the bodies had to be exhumed.

Their actions “resulted in the extreme emotional distress for numerous victims at a time when many were still grieving the loss of a loved one,” prosecutors said in their sentencing statement. “The Government cannot adequately capture in words the extent of the victims’ pain as it is incalculable in depth and scope.”

Some of the charges also related to allegations they defrauded the US Small Business Administration out of around $882,000 in Covid-19 relief funds made available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Jon Hallford also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced in June 2025 to 20 years in prison. They are jointly and severally liable for $1.07 million in restitution.

Carie Hallford is represented by Melihercik Law LLC.

The case is United States v. Hallford, D. Colo., No. 1:24-cr-00113, 3/16/26.