DENVER — After almost three years, the federal case against one of the disgraced Southern Colorado former funeral home owners — accused of stockpiling nearly 200 decomposing bodies instead of burying or cremating them — is moving forward.
Carie Hallford is expected to be sentenced in U.S. District Court at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, after her original December sentencing date was postponed.
She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August, marking her second change of plea in the case.
Carie and Jon Hallford were originally charged with 15 federal crimes after they were accused of fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds and using those funds for personal luxuries instead of for their business.
She pleaded guilty to Count 11 of the indictment — conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Jon Hallford pleaded guilty to the same count and, in June of 2025, was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years. In that case, Judge Nina Wang deemed that the alleged fraud was “inextricably connected” to the other crimes the couple is accused of committing.
The guidelines in Carie Hallford's plea agreement recommend a sentence of 78 to 97 months in prison, but the sentencing will ultimately be up to the judge. The maximum penalty in the case is 20 years behind bars, and prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 15 years in prison.
Her plea agreement continues to claim that the Hallfords failed to cremate or bury roughly 190 bodies, while simultaneously collecting approximately $130,000 from families for burial services that were never provided. The couple "concealed the gruesome collection of bodies at their Penrose location by preventing outsiders from entering their building, covering the windows or doors of the building to limit others from viewing inside, and providing false statements to others regarding the foul odor emanating from the building," the plea agreement reads.
Carie Hallford's agreement also states that the Hallfords, in a number of instances, provided a decedent's family with an urn that contained dry concrete mix instead of remains. On at least two occasions, the agreement claims the Hallfords "arranged for and provided the wrong body for a cemetery burial resulting in the incorrect remains being buried in a gravesite plot while concealing this fact from the next-of-kin."
Carie Hallford initially pleaded not guilty in the wire fraud case in April of 2024, then pleaded guilty under a different agreement in the fall of 2024. That agreement was rejected in March of 2025 because it bound the court to a particular sentence, and as a result, Carie Hallford withdrew her plea.
Southern Colorado
Return to Nature Funeral Home co-owner Jon Hallford sentenced to 40 years
The federal guilty plea from Carie Hallford is separate from the local case where she faces charges related to allegedly stashing nearly 200 bodies inside the funeral home. That case is still pending in state court, where she has also accepted a plea agreement.
According to testimony during a preliminary hearing, the earliest date of death found within the funeral home was Sept. 15, 2019, and the most recent date of death was Aug. 22, 2023.
Jon Hallford was sentenced to 40 years behind bars in February for his plea deal connected to almost 200 abuse of a corpse charges. Judge Eric Bentley could have sentenced him to anywhere between 30 and 50 years.
Bentley called the 40-year sentence "extraordinary," and told Jon Hallford that the crimes he committed tests his belief that every human being is good at their core.
"It is my hope and my wish that your heart will break into a thousand pieces as you reflect on what you've done, and the scope of the harm you've caused," Bentley said when sentencing Jon Hallford.
For his part, Jon Hallford told the courtroom that he will regret his actions for the rest of his life.
"There are no words to express the amount of regret I feel for the wrong I have done, and I am deeply sorry. None of this was planned and I never intended for any of it to happen," Jon Hallford said.
During Jon Hallford's state sentencing hearing, prosecutors argued that over the course of five months of excessive spending the Hallfords could have cremated 617 people three times over.
In addition, prosecutors displayed some math for the courtroom, putting the time the bodies spent inside the funeral home into perspective.
They calculated 1,481 days between the search warrant and the body that spent the longest amount of time at the funeral home. Then, they said the bodies spent an average of 847 days inside the building, breaking down to each body spending roughly more than two years at Return to Nature Funeral Home.
660 pounds of concrete mix was used to keep the scheme going, according to prosecutors, who found that number through Home Depot receipts.
Tanya Wilson spoke during Jon Hallford's sentencing, requesting the maximum amount of time in prison. Her mother, Yong Anderson, passed away in June 2023 and the family hired Return to Nature Funeral Home.
"Every time I used to think about her, before we found out about this, you know, I would think about that day and how beautiful she looked, and how peaceful she looked, and how happy that I was that my brother and I were both there for her, holding her hand when she took her final breath," Wilson told Denver7. "Now, whenever I think about my mother, I think about her lying and all that filth."
Wilson said there is no amount of time that truly reflects the nightmare she now lives.
"I think there was some accountability with very limited boundaries, but it does not reflect the full scope of the harm that was caused to all of us, the families of the identified and those that haven't been identified yet. So, while it does kind of close the chapter, it still doesn't provide the justice that all of us deserve," Wilson said.
Carie Hallford's state sentencing is scheduled for April 24, where she faces between 25 to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to nearly 200 abuse of a corpse charges.
State
'They're very busy': Two new funeral home inspectors are a first for Colorado
The death care industry was first regulated in Colorado in 1913. By 1983, it was deregulated, and individuals no longer needed to obtain a license to operate a funeral home.
In 2018, Colorado was shocked by an investigation into Sunset Mesa Funeral Home directors on the Western Slope, which was shut down that year as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the funeral home that doubled as a body broker. In that case, human remains were sold without permission while families received containers of ashes that were not their loved one's.
As a result, Senate Bill 18-234 became law, regulating non-transplant tissue banks in Colorado.
In 2020, the state legislature passed House Bill 20-1148, which made abuse of a corpse a Class 6 Felony.
The legislative session that followed the disturbing 2023 discovery at Return to Nature Funeral Home resulted in new laws for Colorado as well. One of those was House Bill 24-1335, which included the requirement for routine inspections of funeral homes and crematories.
Currently, there are just a few requirements needed to operate a funeral home, including being over 18 years of age and not having a criminal record. That will change at the start of 2027 because of Senate Bill 24-173, which established licensure Colorado had been missing.
The state has published a consumer guide to death care in Colorado, a list of frequently asked questions, a licensing guide and an inspection form.
In addition, there are videos detailing how to file a complaint and explaining the complaint process. There's more information about filing a complaint on the state website as well.
In order to obtain a list of licensees and their associated disciplines, visit this link on the Division of Professions and Occupations' website. Then, click on the "plus sign" next to Board/Program and select a license code. Click "continue" at the bottom of the screen, The resulting pop-up menu can create an Excel spreadsheet, which allows the entries to be sorted by name, license number, status, disciplinary actions and more.
An individual license can be searched at this link by clicking "verify if your professional is licensed/registered" and then entering information about the license in question.
