A building packed with dead bodies: This is the funeral home scam that cheated the government and lied to families
Fake ashes, rotting corpses, and a guilty plea: this is the story of the Return to Nature Funeral Home.
Carie Hallford walked into a Colorado courtroom and pleaded guilty to one of the most grotesque frauds the American funeral industry has ever seen. For four years, Hallford and her husband ran the Return to Nature Funeral Home that didn’t cremate bodies—it hoarded them. In trash bags. In a non-refrigerated building. While families mourned over urns filled with concrete dust.
Between 2019 and 2023, the Hallfords collected money from grieving families, promised dignified cremations, and instead let nearly 200 corpses rot inside a building that was never meant to store the dead. Concrete powder was handed out in urns and cremation certificates were forged. The scam only came to light in 2023 when neighbours complained of a smell.
In total, the couple pocketed a total of $900,000 in COVID-19 pandemic-era financial aid, as well as $130,000 in direct payments from families who thought they were burying loved ones. Instead, those bodies were decaying in a makeshift warehouse where, according to investigators, they were stacked “like firewood.”
Hallford now faces up to 20 years in federal prison, though prosecutors are asking for 15. She admitted to wire fraud, mail fraud, and using the stolen funds on the a wide variety of items that wouldn’t look out of place on a gameshow roundup: a GMC Yukon, crypto, liposuction, and luxury jewellery.
In state court, things are just as ghastly. Both Carie and Jon Hallford have been hit with 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, a charge for almost every body they mishandled, left to rot, or flat-out buried under the wrong name. One of the bodies was even wrongly buried more than once.
Related stories
Jon has already agreed to his sentence: he pleaded guilty to all 191 state counts, plus federal fraud, and is now serving 20 years in prison. Carie, meanwhile, is still holding out. She pulled out of her plea in the state case and is headed to trial this September.
Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all. Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.