Funeral home operators charged with misusing COVID relief funds
A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where authorities last year discovered 190 decaying bodies were indicted on federal charges that they misspent nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other personal expenses, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The indictment reaffirms accusations from state prosecutors that Jon and Carie Hallford gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and alleges the couple buried the wrong body on two occasions.
The couple also collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided, the indictment said.
The 15 charges brought by the federal grand jury are in addition to more than 200 criminal counts already pending against the Hallfords in Colorado state court for corpse abuse, money laundering, theft and forgery.
The federal offenses carry potential penalties of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, the indictment said.
On Monday, the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs entered a federal courtroom bound in shackles as they made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff argued the couple were a flight risk, after they fled to Oklahoma last October when the decaying bodies were first discovered and
before their arrest on state charges on Nov. 8.
“They simply evaporated from the community,” Neff said.
The judge did not immediately decide if the couple should be released pending trial. He set an arraignment hearing for Thursday.
Carie Hallford's attorney, Chaz Melihercik, said he would argue against detention at the next hearing. Jon Hallford's public defender, Kilie Latendresse, told the judge that he had been following his bond conditions in the state case and that detention was unnecessary.
Before the new indictment was unsealed, public records showed the Hallfords had been plagued by debt — facing evictions and lawsuits for unpaid cremations even as they spent lavishly on themselves.
The indictment alleges the couple used $882,300 in pandemic relief funds to buy items that also included a vehicle, dinners, tuition for their child and cryptocurrency. The fraud involved
three loans obtained between March 2020 and October 2021, authorities said.
Previously released court documents from the state abuse of corpse case reveal more details about what they were spending money on.
They bought a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti that together were worth over $120,000 — enough to cover cremation costs twice over for all of the bodies found in their business' facility last October, according to previous court testimony from FBI Agent Andrew Cohen.
They also paid for trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas, as well as $31,000 in cryptocurrency, laser body sculpting and shopping at luxury retailers like Gucci
and Tiffany & Co., according to court documents.
The couple have not yet entered pleas to the state's abuse of corpse charges.
Carie Hallford's attorney in the state case, Michael Stuzynski, declined to comment on the federal indictment. Jon Hallford's attorney in the state case works for the public defenders office, which does not comment on pending cases.
The Hallfords left in their wake a trail of unpaid bills, disgruntled landlords and unsettled business disputes.
The couple once claimed to a former landlord that they would settle their rent when they were paid for work they had done for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The business' website featured logos for FEMA and the Department of Defense.
FEMA has said they did not have any contracts with the funeral home. A defense department database search also showed no contracts with Return to Nature.