DENVER — A disgraced Southern Colorado former funeral home owner — accused of stockpiling nearly 200 decomposing bodies instead of burying or cremating them — was sentenced to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 18 years on Monday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Carie Hallford was sentenced in U.S. District Court following emotional testimony from over a dozen victim family members, who explained the impact this case has had on their lives to the judge.
One of them was Derek Johnson, who said the impact of the trauma is not exclusive to a single moment, and instead consumes his life, paints everything a little gray, and does not hesitate to remind him it is there.
"It hurts, but the mind cannot stop returning to it," Johnson said in court. “This type of grief does not announce itself… The world cannot see the pain that I am holding in quietly, while I am living my life."
Carie Hallford pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August, marking her second change of plea in the federal case.
Her federal sentence will run concurrent with her anticipated sentence in El Paso County. She will serve time in the state correctional facility, before a supervised release of three years.
Prosecutors were asking for a 15-year sentence, but Judge Nina Wang could have sentenced Carie Hallford up to a maximum of 20 years, like what happened in her ex-husband Jon Hallford's case.
Carie Hallford's defense attorneys said the divorce between the couple was finalized last week, and proceeded to argue that she acted out of fear and self-preservation when committing fraud, claiming Jon Hallford used "escalating threats, legal manipulation, and emotional blackmail" to entrap her in the scheme.
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. Judge Wang deemed that the alleged fraud was “inextricably connected” to the abuse of a corpse charges detailed in the state cases for both Hallfords.
The guidelines in Carie Hallford's plea agreement recommended a sentence between 78 and 97 months 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.
During the sentencing on Monday, Carie Hallford addressed the courtroom, saying that she is not the monster depicted in the details of this case.
“I was raised to know right from wrong, to make good choices and be a good example for others," Carie Hallford said. “Slowly, over time, I became someone else.”
She described her marriage as a "convoluted web of lies," and said she was on the receiving end of "words sharp as a knife" that made her feel insignificant and inadequate.
When sentencing Carie Hallford, Judge Wang said she read through thousands of text messages between the couple, in which she saw Jon Hallford exercise a "great deal of emotional manipulation" over Carie Hallford.
After that, Judge Wang took the time to read all of the named victims in this case, which stretched over six pages of paper. She also told Carie Hallford it was evident that she acted as an "equal partner" in the fraud scheme.
All of the individuals whose loved ones were found within the funeral home urged the maximum sentence in this case. Sisters Caitlin Castillo and Erin Smelser were among them, after learning very recently that their mother, Cindy Smelser, was one of the people whose remains were left decomposing inside of Return to Nature Funeral Home.
"We have to make peace with this," Smelser said to Denver7, explaining about learning their mother was identified as one of the victims and the impact that had on their grief. "Now it's all ripped back open again."
Neither of the sisters believe 18 years in prison is a sentence that brings justice to their family.
"I'm a little disappointed that it's not equal to Jon's [sentence], because I feel like they are equal partners in the commission of what happened. But I mean, I feel like 20 years for Jon wasn't enough," said Castillo. "I could, you know, sooner understand her robbing a bank, because she was coerced into it in that kind of situation, than I can looking us in the eyes and telling us those things, right? I feel like it's a different level.”
"I don't think that somebody coerced into doing something. I think that takes real mental clarity and real confidence to be able to sit there and do that," Smelser said about Carie Hallford's actions when interacting with families.
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 in the state case. 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.
