The married co-owners of a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found pleaded guilty Friday to corpse abuse.
Jon and Carie Hallford ran the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which had operations in the Colorado Springs area and in Penrose, Colorado.
The shocking discovery was made at the Penrose location in October 2023, after the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports from residents of a foul odor coming from the facility. Some of the bodies found had died as far back as 2019, officials said.
The two pleaded guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, whose office prosecuted the case, said. The counts include two instances where the wrong bodies were buried.
The judge accepted their pleas during a hearing on Friday, though has not yet accepted the plea agreements and will reserve judgment for that until sentencing next year, Allen said.
