Funeral home operator gets 30 years for improperly storing nearly 200 corpses

A Colorado state court sentenced Carie Hallford to 30 years on Friday on charges of corpse abuse. Hallford accepted a plea deal from the state for a sentence between 25 and 35 years according to a live stream of the hearing.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Eric Bentley in Colorado explained that he weighed justice for the victims above the possibility of the offender’s rehabilitation. A federal court had already sentenced Hallford to 18 years in prison in March, along with three years of supervised release and just over $1 million in restitution, in connection with the related federal case.

Officials first arrested Carie and her husband, Jon, in November 2023, after discovering 189 decomposing bodies in the couple’s business, Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose. The business claimed to specialize in so-called green burials, which omit the embalming process, allowing bodies to decompose naturally or be cremated. The local coroner needed to use fingerprints, DNA, medical records, and dental records to identify remains found stacked inside the 2,500-square-foot building.

The director of Colorado’s Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration contacted the couple in October 2023 after receiving reports complaining of a foul odor. Jon reportedly admitted to having a “problem” on site and said he practiced taxidermy out of the building, according to previous reporting. Jon and Carie admitted to federal wire fraud charges in connection with falsifying death certificates, sending customers fake ashes, and misusing federal COVID-19 payouts from the government.

The hours-long sentencing began at 10:30 a.m. local time and continued past 3 p.m. local time. Family members whose loved ones rotted in the funeral home spoke before the sentencing, with several accusing Carie of taking away the dignity of their deceased. Others described struggling with nightmares and panic attacks over knowing how their deceased loved one was treated and recurring mental images of their bodies rotting.

Did Carie address the court? Carie tearfully addressed the court before the sentencing and apologized to the victims, their families, her family, and her children. She characterized her marriage as a web of lies and deceit, and accused her now ex-husband of emotional and psychological torment. She said she wished so badly to go back in time and change so many of her decisions. She insisted that she was not a monster or a danger to society, but she admitted that she deserved to be punished for her actions.

Carie’s attorney, Michael Stuzynski, and several family members delivered statements affirming the woman’s character and insisting that she fearfully followed instructions from her alleged abuser. Stuzynski asked the court to consider Carie’s years of coercion and abuse, along with her genuine remorse, when assigning a sentence.

What happened to her husband? The state sentenced Jon to serve 40 years in prison earlier this year, which will be concurrently served with the 20 years he received from a federal court last summer. The federal court also ordered Jon to pay the same $1 million restitution as Carie.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on Jon’s federal sentencing last summer.