Carie Hallford sentenced to 30 years for abuse of a corpse charges at Return to Nature Funeral Home

Colorado's 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office held a press briefing after the sentencing of Carie Hallford. Watch below.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Nearly three years after close to 200 decaying bodies were discovered left to rot in a funeral home in Penrose, Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners, have both been sentenced for state counts of abuse of a corpse.

Jon and Carie Hallford are accused of accepting customers' payments to cremate their loved ones and taking out fraudulent COVID relief funds – all while hiding the bodies, sending families fake ashes, and using that money on designer goods and luxury cars.

On April 24, Carie was sentenced to 30 years for her state charges. She was also sentenced to 18 years in federal prison back in March, which will run concurrently with her state sentence, with three years of probation upon release. In addition, the court ordered a restitution of over one million dollars.

Her ex-husband, Jon, was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 3 years of probation for federal wire fraud charges in June of 2025, as well as 40 years for his state charges in February of 2026.

During a press briefing after Caries' sentencing, the coroner confirmed that all but two have been identified from the bodies found.

The scheme was discovered after neighbors in Penrose reported a smell emanating from the Return to Nature property. KRDO13 Investigates was at the scene as deputies busted into the building, where 189 decomposing bodies were found stacked on top of each other.

KRDO13 Investigates has covered the Return to Nature Funeral Home and the horrific situation created by Jon and Carrie Hallford extensively. Our full reporting on the topic can be found here.

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