Three reports included: from first to most recent.
Oct. 5, 2023
PENROSE, Colo. (AP) - Authorities in Colorado said Thursday they were investigating the improper storage of human remains at a funeral home that performs “green” burials without embalming chemicals or metal caskets.
The investigation centers on a building owned by the Return to Nature Funeral Home outside Colorado Springs in the small town of Penrose.
Deputies were called to the single-story building Tuesday night in reference to a suspicious incident. Investigators returned the next day with a search warrant and found the improperly stored remains, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office said. The number of human remains found and their condition were not specified.
The sheriff’s office said it was working with state and federal officials on the investigation. Family members who used the funeral home were asked to contact the sheriff’s office. More details were expected to be released by officials at a scheduled news conference Friday morning.
Trash bags could be seen Thursday outside the entrance of the company’s building, with two law enforcement vehicles parked in front. Yellow police tape cordoned off the area and a putrid odor pervaded the air.
A hearse was parked at the back of the building, in a parking lot overgrown with weeds. Near the squat building was a post office and a few scattered homes, spaced out between dry grass and empty lots with parked semi-trucks.
Under Colorado law, green burials are legal but state code requires that any body not buried within 24 hours must be properly refrigerated.
Joyce Pavetti, 73, can see the funeral home from the stoop of her house and said she caught whiffs of a putrid smell in the last few weeks.
“We just assumed it was a dead animal,” she said. On Wednesday night, Pavetti said she could see lights from law enforcement swarming around the building and knew something was going on.
The building has been occupied by different businesses over the years, said Pavetti, who once took yoga classes there. She hasn’t seen anyone in the area recently and noticed the hearse behind the building only in recent months, she said.
Neighbor Ron Alexander thought the smell was coming from a septic tank, adding that Wednesday night’s blur of law enforcement lights “looked like the 4th of July.”
The father of a 25-year-old U.S. Navy serviceman who died last summer said Return to Nature handled his son’s body between the time of its arrival back in Colorado and an Aug. 25 funeral service at Pikes Peak National Cemetery east of Colorado Springs.
“I mean, there’s obviously questions after hearing that there is something going on but there’s not any information that I can go off of to really make any kind of judgement on it,” said Paul Saito Kahler, of Fountain, Colorado.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home provides burial of non-embalmed bodies in biodegradable caskets, shrouds or “nothing at all,” according to its website. The company also provides cremation services. Messages left for the Colorado Springs-based company were not immediately returned.
“No embalming fluids, no concrete vaults. As natural as possible,” it says on its website.
The company charges $1,895 for a “natural burial.” That doesn’t include the cost of a casket and cemetery space, according to the website.
The funeral home also performs cremations that involve no chemicals or unnatural materials — “just you and the Earth, returning to nature,” according to its website.
Return to Nature was established six years ago in Colorado Springs, according to public records.
A green burial refers to burying bodies that have not been embalmed. That’s different from human composting, in which the body is placed in a vessel and transformed into soil.
Fremont County property records show that the funeral home building and lot are owned by Hallfordhomes, LLC, a business with a Colorado Springs address which the Colorado Secretary of State declared delinquent on Oct. 1 for failing to file a routine reporting form that was due at the end of July.
The LLC changed addresses around Colorado Springs three times since its establishment in 2016 with a post office box. Hallfordhomes still owes about $5,000 in 2022 property taxes on its building in Penrose, according to Fremont County records.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home was licensed in Colorado Springs in 2017. There were no disciplinary actions against the company listed on a state license database. There was not a separate license for the Penrose facility and it wasn’t known if one was needed. Messages left with licensing authorities were not immediately returned.
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Oct. 16, 2023
DENVER (AP) — The remains of at least 189 people have been removed from a Colorado funeral home, up from an initial estimate of about 115 when the decaying and improperly stored bodies were discovered two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday.
The remains were found by authorities responding to a report of an “abhorrent smell” inside a decrepit building at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in the small town of Penrose, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Denver. All the remains were removed from the site as of Oct. 13, but officials said the numbers could change again as the identification process continues.
The updated count comes as families who did business with the funeral home grow increasingly concerned about what happened to their deceased loved ones. Local officials said they will begin notifying family members in the coming days as the remains are identified.
There is no timeline to complete the work, which began last week with help from an FBI team that gets deployed to mass casualty events like airline crashes. Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said he wanted to provide accurate information to families “to prevent further victimization as they continue to grieve.”
As of last week, more than 120 families worried their relatives could be among the remains had contacted law enforcement about the case. It could take weeks to identify the remains found and could require taking fingerprints, finding medical or dental records, and DNA testing.
Authorities found the bodies inside a 2,500-square-foot (230-square-meter) building with the appearance and dimensions of a standard one-story home.
Colorado has some of the weakest oversight of funeral homes in the nation with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral home operators.
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Nov. 24, 2023
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a defunct Colorado funeral home where 190 sets of decomposing human remains were found have been returned to the state to face hundreds of felony charges.
Carie Hallford appeared in District Court in Colorado Springs via video on Wednesday. District Judge Samorreyan Burney maintained her bail at $2 million cash during the advisement hearing, KRDO-TV reported. Jon Hallford’s advisement hearing was Friday and his bail also remained at $2 million.
Carie Hallford’s public defender had asked for her bail to be reduced to $50,000, citing her lack of a criminal record, but Burney noted she faced more than 250 felony charges. Both Hallfords face 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, over 50 counts of forgery, five counts of theft and four counts of money laundering, federal court records said.
Neither entered a plea. Their next court appearances are set for Dec. 5.
Court records say the Hallfords are both being represented by the public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases to the media.
The case began in early October when the report of an “abhorrent smell” led to the discovery of the bodies at a Return to Nature Funeral Home location in Penrose - about 34 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Colorado Springs.
After the bodies were removed, officials said there were 190 sets of remains, with some having been there as long as four years. The coroner’s office used fingerprints and medical records to try to identify the bodies, and would use DNA if necessary, officials said.
Family members had been falsely told their loved ones had been cremated and had received materials that were not their ashes, court records said.
The couple was arrested on Nov. 8 at the home of Jon Hallford’s father in Oklahoma, according to a federal arrest warrant alleging they fled the state to avoid prosecution. The federal charge was dropped after their arrests.
Carie Hallford was booked into the El Paso County Jail in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and Jon Hallford was returned to Colorado on Wednesday.
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Colorado funeral home with ‘green’ burials under
investigation after improperly stored bodies found
investigation after improperly stored bodies found
Oct. 5, 2023
PENROSE, Colo. (AP) - Authorities in Colorado said Thursday they were investigating the improper storage of human remains at a funeral home that performs “green” burials without embalming chemicals or metal caskets.
The investigation centers on a building owned by the Return to Nature Funeral Home outside Colorado Springs in the small town of Penrose.
Deputies were called to the single-story building Tuesday night in reference to a suspicious incident. Investigators returned the next day with a search warrant and found the improperly stored remains, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office said. The number of human remains found and their condition were not specified.
The sheriff’s office said it was working with state and federal officials on the investigation. Family members who used the funeral home were asked to contact the sheriff’s office. More details were expected to be released by officials at a scheduled news conference Friday morning.
Trash bags could be seen Thursday outside the entrance of the company’s building, with two law enforcement vehicles parked in front. Yellow police tape cordoned off the area and a putrid odor pervaded the air.
A hearse was parked at the back of the building, in a parking lot overgrown with weeds. Near the squat building was a post office and a few scattered homes, spaced out between dry grass and empty lots with parked semi-trucks.
Under Colorado law, green burials are legal but state code requires that any body not buried within 24 hours must be properly refrigerated.
Joyce Pavetti, 73, can see the funeral home from the stoop of her house and said she caught whiffs of a putrid smell in the last few weeks.
“We just assumed it was a dead animal,” she said. On Wednesday night, Pavetti said she could see lights from law enforcement swarming around the building and knew something was going on.
The building has been occupied by different businesses over the years, said Pavetti, who once took yoga classes there. She hasn’t seen anyone in the area recently and noticed the hearse behind the building only in recent months, she said.
Neighbor Ron Alexander thought the smell was coming from a septic tank, adding that Wednesday night’s blur of law enforcement lights “looked like the 4th of July.”
The father of a 25-year-old U.S. Navy serviceman who died last summer said Return to Nature handled his son’s body between the time of its arrival back in Colorado and an Aug. 25 funeral service at Pikes Peak National Cemetery east of Colorado Springs.
“I mean, there’s obviously questions after hearing that there is something going on but there’s not any information that I can go off of to really make any kind of judgement on it,” said Paul Saito Kahler, of Fountain, Colorado.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home provides burial of non-embalmed bodies in biodegradable caskets, shrouds or “nothing at all,” according to its website. The company also provides cremation services. Messages left for the Colorado Springs-based company were not immediately returned.
“No embalming fluids, no concrete vaults. As natural as possible,” it says on its website.
The company charges $1,895 for a “natural burial.” That doesn’t include the cost of a casket and cemetery space, according to the website.
The funeral home also performs cremations that involve no chemicals or unnatural materials — “just you and the Earth, returning to nature,” according to its website.
Return to Nature was established six years ago in Colorado Springs, according to public records.
A green burial refers to burying bodies that have not been embalmed. That’s different from human composting, in which the body is placed in a vessel and transformed into soil.
Fremont County property records show that the funeral home building and lot are owned by Hallfordhomes, LLC, a business with a Colorado Springs address which the Colorado Secretary of State declared delinquent on Oct. 1 for failing to file a routine reporting form that was due at the end of July.
The LLC changed addresses around Colorado Springs three times since its establishment in 2016 with a post office box. Hallfordhomes still owes about $5,000 in 2022 property taxes on its building in Penrose, according to Fremont County records.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home was licensed in Colorado Springs in 2017. There were no disciplinary actions against the company listed on a state license database. There was not a separate license for the Penrose facility and it wasn’t known if one was needed. Messages left with licensing authorities were not immediately returned.
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Remains of at least 189 people removed from Colorado funeral home
Oct. 16, 2023
DENVER (AP) — The remains of at least 189 people have been removed from a Colorado funeral home, up from an initial estimate of about 115 when the decaying and improperly stored bodies were discovered two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday.
The remains were found by authorities responding to a report of an “abhorrent smell” inside a decrepit building at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in the small town of Penrose, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Denver. All the remains were removed from the site as of Oct. 13, but officials said the numbers could change again as the identification process continues.
The updated count comes as families who did business with the funeral home grow increasingly concerned about what happened to their deceased loved ones. Local officials said they will begin notifying family members in the coming days as the remains are identified.
There is no timeline to complete the work, which began last week with help from an FBI team that gets deployed to mass casualty events like airline crashes. Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said he wanted to provide accurate information to families “to prevent further victimization as they continue to grieve.”
As of last week, more than 120 families worried their relatives could be among the remains had contacted law enforcement about the case. It could take weeks to identify the remains found and could require taking fingerprints, finding medical or dental records, and DNA testing.
Authorities found the bodies inside a 2,500-square-foot (230-square-meter) building with the appearance and dimensions of a standard one-story home.
Colorado has some of the weakest oversight of funeral homes in the nation with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral home operators.
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Colorado funeral home owners where decomposing bodies found returned to state to face charges
Nov. 24, 2023
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a defunct Colorado funeral home where 190 sets of decomposing human remains were found have been returned to the state to face hundreds of felony charges.
Carie Hallford appeared in District Court in Colorado Springs via video on Wednesday. District Judge Samorreyan Burney maintained her bail at $2 million cash during the advisement hearing, KRDO-TV reported. Jon Hallford’s advisement hearing was Friday and his bail also remained at $2 million.
Carie Hallford’s public defender had asked for her bail to be reduced to $50,000, citing her lack of a criminal record, but Burney noted she faced more than 250 felony charges. Both Hallfords face 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, over 50 counts of forgery, five counts of theft and four counts of money laundering, federal court records said.
Neither entered a plea. Their next court appearances are set for Dec. 5.
Court records say the Hallfords are both being represented by the public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases to the media.
The case began in early October when the report of an “abhorrent smell” led to the discovery of the bodies at a Return to Nature Funeral Home location in Penrose - about 34 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Colorado Springs.
After the bodies were removed, officials said there were 190 sets of remains, with some having been there as long as four years. The coroner’s office used fingerprints and medical records to try to identify the bodies, and would use DNA if necessary, officials said.
Family members had been falsely told their loved ones had been cremated and had received materials that were not their ashes, court records said.
The couple was arrested on Nov. 8 at the home of Jon Hallford’s father in Oklahoma, according to a federal arrest warrant alleging they fled the state to avoid prosecution. The federal charge was dropped after their arrests.
Carie Hallford was booked into the El Paso County Jail in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and Jon Hallford was returned to Colorado on Wednesday.
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