Summary
Owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado, pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found at their facility.
The couple, Jon and Carie Hallford, admitted to defrauding families by taking payments for burial or cremation services they never performed, sometimes substituting concrete mix for ashes.
They also admitted to a related federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud, including $800,000 in COVID-19 relief fraud.
Sentencing for both state and federal cases is scheduled for 2025, with each facing up to 20 years in prison.
Fun fact, until that event, Colorado had hardly any regulations around funeral homes.
https://coloradosun.com/2024/05/24/colorado-funeral-home-bills-signed-law/
but if they waited the free market would make sure competition would kick in and solve the problem ✨magically✨
She’s got that Amy’s Baking Company face.
Its that suburban trophy wife face. I grew up in a suburban labyrinth and so many of my friends’ moms looked exactly like this.
if that’s a trophy wife…i’d rather lose…
Yeah “trophy wives” as a concept is really weird anyway. I know it can have misogynistic uses as well, I prolly should have used quotes the first time
Jfc that’s a business I haven’t heard in a long time. I drove by there once.
For a second there, I thought the lady was Amy from Amy’s Baking Company which created so many questions.
Not convinced it’s not her.
Tweak the story just a bit and you get Sweeney Todd though, that’d be an interesting take.
Now you got me wondering again lol
Well, it seems like Amy’s Baking Company has not survived the test of time. According to Kitchen Nightmares Updates, the bakery closed in 2015 after its owners found a new buyer for the business. In response to a question posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the business closing, Amy’s Baking Company confirmed the news, tweeting, “Yes! Now we can focus on several other projects!”
– Source
Wasn’t that one revealed to be a front for money laundering or something?
I vaguely recall rumors but have never looked into it to be sure. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me. But its equally plausible they’re just horrible business owners.
What was the plan here? Surely they had some idea of what they were going to do with the bodies?
Bleach the skeletons and sell them to medical institutions H.H. Holmes style
And these fucktards did not even have the frame of mind to rent a backhoe, and a wood chipper and get these bodies done in an afternoon.
Bacho…backhoe?
The latter… a digger
Really, the sentences are going to be concurrent and I think the fraud conviction will likely be much longer than whatever the corpse thing is.
Lemmy has been very interested in this story, which I’m grateful for. I’ve been able to follow it since the beginning. Thanks, OP!
But why?
Well… they did what they promised, returned them to nature
Nah, they were more like stacked in the basement. Think necropolis but worse.
Packed in barrels with extra-dimensional fluid to turn them into demon midgets?
I just finished listening to a podcast about a very similar situation, it’s a great listen. It’s called Noble for anyone interested.
Wasn’t there a case in Georgia where the furnace used for cremation broke down and they didn’t fix it?
It wasn’t broken. He just didn’t use it. He dumped 339 bodies in the woods behind his crematorium. It took years for anyone to find out.
I feel like that would’ve smelled really bad, and there would’ve been flocks of crows and vultures hanging around.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just super sensitive to the smell of death or something, but one decomposing mouse and stink up a good portion of a warehouse. If he was too lazy to cremate them, I doubt he was throwing garden lime down.
Strange situation.
I forgot the number was that insanely high. 339! WTF, dude!
I guess that after the first one, it just gets easier to think of the bodies as mere things instead of human remains that deserve at least token respect.
