DENVER — The proprietors of a Colorado funeral home are set to enter guilty pleas on Friday concerning state allegations that they allowed 190 human remains to decompose on their property while providing grieving families with counterfeit ashes.

Jon and Carie Hallford, who own Return to Nature Funeral Home, reportedly began storing corpses in a rundown facility near Colorado Springs as early as 2019. Instead of actual cremated remains, they handed families dry concrete, which severely disrupted the mourning process for many. The shocking revelations emerged last year, leading to widespread outrage among the affected families.

According to prosecutors, the Hallfords engaged in lavish spending over the years. They allegedly misappropriated customer funds and utilized nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief assistance to finance extravagant purchases, including luxury cars, body sculpting treatments, vacations to Las Vegas and Florida, $31,000 in cryptocurrency, and other high-end items, as indicated in court documents.

Last month, the Hallfords admitted guilt to federal fraud charges, marking a significant acknowledgment of their deceit towards both customers and the federal government. In state court, they face over 200 charges, including corpse abuse, theft, forgery, and money laundering.

Jon Hallford is being represented by the public defender’s office, which has opted not to discuss the case. Carie Hallford’s attorney, Michael Stuzynski, also refrained from making any comments regarding the ongoing legal matters.

Over the span of four years, clients of Return to Nature believed they were honoring their deceased loved ones by scattering what they thought were their ashes in significant places, including flights away. Others took their urns on long road trips across the country or kept them closely at home.

Authorities discovered the improperly stored bodies last year after neighbors alerted them to a foul odor emanating from the premises in Penrose, located southwest of Colorado Springs. Upon investigation, they found bodies piled haphazardly, some infested with insects, and others too decomposed for visual identification. The hazardous conditions of the building required responders to don hazmat suits and to limit their time inside due to toxicity levels.

The shocking revelation of the bodies at Return to Nature Funeral Home prompted the state legislature to take action, leading to tightened regulations for funeral homes in Colorado, which previously had some of the most lenient laws in the nation. Unlike many other states, Colorado did not mandate routine inspections of funeral homes nor set qualifications for operators. However, this year, state lawmakers worked to reform these regulations significantly, receiving support from the funeral home industry in the process.