Two Colorado funeral home owners accused of abandoning nearly 200 bodies accepted payments from families for cremations and burials in exchange for cars, virtual currency, $1,500 dinners in Las Vegas, and more. Other personal items were purchased, prosecutors and FBI agents said Thursday.
In a courtroom filled with family members, FBI Agent Andrew Cohen said John and Carrie Hallford used payments from family members to buy two cars, a GMC Yukon and an Infinti, for $120,000. I explained in detail that I purchased it above. All the bodies were discovered in October last year at the company's storage facility in Penrose, Colorado.
As Cohen testified, John Hallford sat at the defense table wearing a black jacket, tie and glasses, staring straight ahead. He showed no reaction.
Parts of the body remained in a maggot-infested building for years until they were discovered after reports of a foul odor pervading the small mountain town. Families who asked Return to Nature to cremate their relatives told The Associated Press that the FBI confirmed their remains were among the decomposing bodies.
Testimony about the Hallfords' spending practices came at a hearing where a judge ruled that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to show John Hallford should face criminal charges. A judge had previously ruled that Carrie Hallford would also stand trial.
The couple were arrested in Oklahoma in November. Neither has yet entered a plea. Investigators have been gathering evidence since the body was discovered.
John Hallford's attorney, Adam Steigerwald, said prosecutors have not shown that the funds from the couple's business accounts were used to conceal the source of the funds, meaning they do not constitute a money laundering crime. He claimed that it was not true. He also said the couple used funds they received from the federal Small Business Administration to purchase Yukon Territory.
But Cohen said the Hallfords lied about not being behind on child support payments and that the money, which was a pandemic-era small business loan adjustment, was obtained fraudulently.
The couple, who owned Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, are each charged with 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and more than 50 counts of forgery. In addition to the funeral home, they used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose as a body storage facility, prosecutors said.
Members of law enforcement and the coroner's office raided a “green” funeral home in Colorado following reports of suspicious activity and improper storage of corpses.
At previous hearings for Carrie Hallford, prosecutors presented text messages suggesting she and her husband tried to cover up financial hardship by leaving her body at the scene in Penrose. They didn't elaborate. There was a makeshift refrigeration system in the building, but it was not working when the bodies were discovered, Cohen testified.
Prosecutors said John Hallford was worried he would be arrested retroactively to 2020 and suggested disposing of the body by dumping it in a large pit and disposing of it with lye or setting it on fire. It is said that he was
“My sole focus is to keep us out of jail,” he wrote in a text message, prosecutors alleged.
John Hallford was released from El Paso County Jail in late January after posting $100,000 bail. Carrie Halford remained in jail Thursday on $100,000 bail.
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Matthew Brown contributed to this report from Billings, Montana.
