More than a hundred bodies were never cremated or buried. A couple who own a funeral home pleaded guilty to corpse abuse after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were discovered in their home in Colorado, United States, ABC News reported on Friday (Nov. 22).
In October 2023, residents of Penrose, Colorado reported to the sheriff of a persistent unpleasant odor in the area. The police go to Jon and Carie Hallford’s house, where the smells are coming from.
It was there that the police discovered to their astonishment that 191 bodies were in a state of decomposition in the couple’s home.
Concrete in the coffin
According to investigators, the couple had organized a scam. While families entrusted the Hallfords with their loved one’s body to be buried or cremated, the bodies were actually kept in their homes as is.
In some cases, Jon and Carie Hallford did not hesitate to put a “dry concrete mix” in the urn or coffin intended to house the deceased to mask the deception.
With these misdeeds, the funeral home received more than 130,000 dollars, or almost 125,000 euros, for false burials and so-called cremations. The scam allegedly lasted four years.
In addition, the couple admitted to having defrauded to receive more than $800,000 in aid, or almost 768,000 euros, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Up to 20 years in prison
Jon and Carie Hallford pleaded guilty to all 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, but also to two bodies that were not buried properly.
Her sentence is not yet known and will be pronounced on April 18, 2025. Carie Hallford faces 15 to 20 years in prison and her husband Jon Hallford faces 20 years in prison.
“This case was obviously an immense emotional ordeal for all the families present,” prosecutor Michael Allen argued in court on Friday, estimating that the victims’ loved ones “will probably never recover” from this violation of the family relationship they believed have. had with the funeral home.
Source: BFM TV
