After giving families fake ashes, ex-funeral home owner sentenced to 18 years in prison

A funeral home owner who helped her ex-husband hide nearly 200 decomposing bodies in a building said she was a “scared and desperate mother” who was manipulated to keep the family business operating.

Carie Hallford, 48, was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly US$900,00 in pandemic small business aid.

Halford faced up to 20 years in prison for taking more than $130,000 from families for funeral services, including cremations, and often giving them urns full of concrete mix instead.

In August, she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted that she and her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, cheated customers and also defrauded the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic small business aid.

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The former couple co-owned Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, where they deceived grieving families by claiming to perform cremations. Instead, they hid the bodies in a bug-infested building and handed out dry concrete that resembled ashes.

Carie Hallford decided to get a divorce after she was sent back to jail in her state case in November 2024, which put her out of reach of Jon Hallford’s alleged constant calls and texts and allowed the “fog in her mind from the years of abuse” to lift, according to a court filing by her lawyer, Robert Charles Melihercik.

Federal sentencing guidelines recommend prison time up to eight years since Carie Hallford didn’t have a criminal history. But lawyers for the government are asking U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang to sentence her to 15 years, in part for taking advantage of grieving people following one of the largest discoveries of decaying bodies at a funeral home in the U.S.

Carie Hallford is asked to be sentenced to eight years. In court documents, Melihercik said her actions were motivated by “fear and severe anxiety.” He said Hallford’s former husband used “classic instruments of domestic violence” to control her, including allegedly threatening at times to kill himself and her.

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“Carie carried an enormous amount of guilt over her inability to stop the financial spiral, but also was too afraid of the consequences of confronting Jon about the problem,” according to the court docs.

Prosecutors wanted a longer sentence because the former couple lavishly spent a nearly $900,000 pandemic-era small business loan on vehicles, cryptocurrency, laser body sculpting and on pricey items from stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co. rather than on their Return to Nature funeral home.

An indictment alleges the couple used $882,300 in pandemic relief funds to buy items that also included dinners and tuition for their child. The fraud involved three loans obtained between March 2020 and October 2021, authorities said.

She claims that much of the spending of the government loan money was a result of “love-bombing” as her ex-husband attempted to apologize to her. She claims she urged him to buy a cremator with the money but was too scared to force the issue, her lawyer said in the court filing.

“Although she will be behind bars for the next decade or more, she finally feels free,” Melihercik wrote. He also said a shorter sentence would allow her to return to work and repay the money the couple took from their victims.

“Ms. Hallford, having seen and heard the pain and anguish of her victims, understands the seriousness of her actions. She has lost her job, her children, and her freedom and her continued incarceration for a 97-month term will continue to provide just punishment and retribution for the victims,” the docs add.

She is also facing 25 to 35 years in prison when she’s sentenced on April 24 in state court after pleading guilty to nearly 200 abuse of a corpse charges.

“The word regret does not even begin to describe the feeling she carries around with her daily. Many victims have shared their stories of suffering through persistent feelings of sickness and horror. Some do not believe those feelings will ever fade. Ms. Hallford apologizes for what she has done to them. More pointedly, she hopes the victims find some comfort in knowing that she has lost everything she ever cared about and that each day she lives is a waking nightmare of shame and remorse,” the court docs add.

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Jon and Carie Hallford each pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse in state court. The plea deals require their state and federal sentences to be served at the same time.

Jon Hallford has already headed to prison after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges, including abuse of a corpse, forgery and money laundering. At his sentencing last month in the state case, he apologized and said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life.

During the sentencing hearing, family members told Judge Eric Bentley they have had recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots since learning what happened to their loved ones.

They called him a “monster” and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence of 50 years.

“I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said. “My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”

Colorado has struggled to effectively oversee funeral homes and, for many years, has had some of the weakest regulations.

Unlike nearly all other states, Colorado’s funeral homes weren’t routinely inspected. Many other states perform annual inspections that entail entering the premises and have educational requirements, such as a degree in mortuary science, a licensing exam or an apprenticeship.

A legislative session that took place after the 2023 discovery at Return to Nature Funeral Home resulted in new laws for Colorado, including House Bill 24-1335, which includes requirements for routine inspections of crematories and funeral homes.

— With files from The Associated Press