Change-of-plea hearings scheduled for funeral home owners in fraud case involving discovery of 190 bodies

A federal judge in Denver has decided to cancel the scheduled trial date for Jon and Carie Hallford, owners of a Colorado funeral home where authorities discovered 190 decaying bodies. The judge has instead set a change-of-plea hearing in a fraud case involving the couple. The Hallfords were indicted in April on fraud charges related to misspending almost $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on personal expenses such as vacations and jewelry. They run the Return to Nature Funeral Home located in Colorado Springs and Penrose, where the bodies were found.
According to the indictment, the Hallfords allegedly provided families with dry concrete instead of cremated ashes, and in two instances, buried the wrong body. The couple is also accused of taking over $130,000 from families for cremation and burial services that were never rendered. These federal charges are separate from the more than 200 criminal counts the Hallfords are facing in state court, including accusations of corpse abuse, money laundering, theft, and forgery.
Carie Hallford submitted a statement to the court indicating that “a disposition has been reached in the instant case” and requested a change-of-plea hearing. Jon Hallford also made a similar request, seeking a hearing for the court to review the proposed plea agreement. The judge approved their request to cancel the trial date of October 15 along with all related dates and deadlines, scheduling the change-of-plea hearings for October 24.