A macabre matter. An American who manages a funeral company was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of more than one million dollars for “conspiracy to commit electronic fraud”, after having touched the government’s help in false bases and for having frauds, informs the Colorado prosecutor in a Press release Friday, June 27. Man has maintained almost 200 bodies in him instead of burying or incinerating them.
Jon Hallford, 45, was director of Funeral Directors of his wife Carie Hallford. Both were entrusted with the responsibility of collecting the bodies of those killed by their families and organizing their funeral.
The couple maintained at least 190 of these bodies at home instead of burying or incinerating them, between September 2019 and October 2023, according to researchers. And this, while receiving more than $ 130,000 family members for the organization of funeral services that are carried out.
If the case focused on fraud, Judge Nina Wang said that the crimes and their magnitude justified the duration of the sentence received. “This is not an ordinary case,” he said, according to Associated Press.
Polls full of concrete given to families
“Instead of ensuring that the remains are properly treated, Hallford has left the bodies to accumulate in several states of decomposition within the funeral facilities,” denounces the prosecutor of Colorado in his decision.
“(Jon Hallford) took measures to hide the nature of his activities blocking windows and doors, limiting access to the building and giving false explanations to the bad smell that arose from the site,” said the prosecutor.
To hide their misdeeds, the forties “regularly deposited with the death certificates of the state of Colorado, falsely indicating the disposition method: cremation or burial” and did not hesitate to “falsify the identity of the deceased with third -party crematories.”
In some cases, the bodies were never cremated and the families received “polls” full of a mixture of dry concrete instead of the incinerated remains of their loved ones. “In others, another person was buried.
A “criminal scam”
Between March 2020 and March 2022, the Hallford couple also made loan requests containing false information to obtain financial assistance created by the government for companies in difficulty during the Covvi-19 Pandemia.
Thanks to this process, the two Americans obtained more than $ 880,000 in government help. A “criminal scam” thanks to which they could “offer a luxurious life” on the back of “families in duel”, denounces the federal prosecutor Peter McNeilly.
“His actions were not only fraudulent, but deeply inhuman,” he condemns.
An unpleasant smell felt by the neighbors
“The magnitude and implacability of the crimes committed by Jon Hallford are deeply disturbing,” said Rebecca Spies, an interim director of the Colorado Research Office.
For his part, Jon Hallford said he was “deeply unfortunate” during the audience. “I still hate myself for what I did.”
The bodies preserved by the couple were discovered by the police in 2023 in a Penrose building, a city to the south of Denver, after the neighbors reported a bad smell of the police.
During the trial, many families said this scam had overturned their duel. Carie Hallford must be tried in turn next September.
Source: BFM TV
