What Was the Return to Nature Funeral Home?
The Return to Nature Funeral Home’s website (which is no longer active) explained that it offered cremation services and green burials.
A growing trend in postmortem arrangements, a green burial means no chemicals—namely embalming fluid—are used on the corpse, thereby purportedly allowing a body to decompose naturally and harmoniously become one with the earth.
"Green Burial is a natural way of caring for your loved one with minimal environmental impact," the website stated, per NBC News. The site assured: "Green Burial aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions and the preservation of habitat, WITHOUT the use of harsh embalming chemicals, metallic, plastic or unnatural items."
The site detailed that their burials utilized biodegradable caskets (no metal) or shrouds—or, "nothing at all."
Their services, without add-ons such as a casket, started at $1,895.
Who Are Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford?
Jon Hallford and his fourth wife, Carie Hallford, obtained a license and opened Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2017.
They opened another facility in Penrose, a small town southwest of Colorado Springs, in 2019.
Court documents obtained by the Associated Press showed Return to Nature was evicted from its building in Colorado Springs in May 2023 and, according to its former landlord, owed $120,000 in back rent.
And it turned out that Jon, a third-generation funeral home director from Oklahoma, had an odd skeleton in his closet as well.
He lost a race for Muskogee City Council in May 2006 after pleading guilty the previous month to a misdemeanor firearm charge. According to The Tulsa World, he was accused along with two other men of donning masks and bursting in on a group of young women having a sleepover while brandishing guns and pretending they were robbers.
"This [happened] last August, and here it is moments before the election and charges are filed, and now it's an issue," Jon told the publication in March 2006. He admitted he had shown "very bad judgment" in participating in the prank.
Jon was also involved in a number of civil disputes before leaving Oklahoma, and was ordered to pay $8,000 to Creditors Recovery Corporation in 2006, according to court records obtained by the Denver Gazette.
Public records reviewed by the AP in 2023 showed that the Penrose building's owner, HallfordHomes, owed $5,000 in property taxes from 2022.
What Was Going on Inside the Return to Nature Funeral Home?
Ultimately, it was the smell that drew authorities to Return to Nature in October 2023.
Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies first visited the Penrose facility on the evening of Oct. 3 in response to a "suspicious incident," according to a sheriff's office news release, and then came back with a search warrant the following day along with investigators from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).
Inside the 2,500-square-foot facility, they found upward of 115 bodies piled up around the complex, Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper said at an Oct. 6 press conference. Two large refrigerators—where corpses are supposed to be stored if they're not buried or embalmed within 24 hours, per Colorado law—were not functioning properly and the bodies were decomposing at room temperature.
Were There Signs of Trouble at Return to Nature?
A suspension letter from the Colorado Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration dated Oct. 5, 2023, and posted by the Denver Gazette noted that Jon had acknowledged a "problem" at the facility when contacted by the office's director on Oct. 4 and said he'd been doing taxidermy on the premises.
The letter noted that the facility was registered up until November 2022 and accused Jon of trying to conceal the improper storage of corpses.
In June 2023, per the Denver Post, an El Paso County judge entered a $21,000 judgment against Return to Nature for failure to pay another business for cremation services.
The funeral home still issued death certificates through August 2023, FBI Special Agent Andrew Cohen stated in a Nov. 7, 2023, affidavit detailing probable cause for Jon's arrest. He also stated in the affidavit that there was no record of state regulators ever inspecting the Penrose facility during its period of operation.
"We're the laughing stock," Blanca Eberhardt, a mortician who works with the state's emergency preparedness team, said on ID's The Curious Case of...The Funeral Home of Horrors. She called it a running joke that "if you can't pass your boards or [you] lose your license in another state, move to Colorado."
Tighter regulation may not prevent any mishandling of bodies, but perhaps, National Funeral Directors Association general counsel Chris Farmer told the AP in 2023, “You catch it at six or eight bodies and not at 115."
What Happened to the Bodies Found at Return to Nature?
Following the "horrific" and "disturbing" discovery, as Sheriff Cooper put it, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said it could take months to identify the bodies through fingerprinting, DNA testing or dental records, after which their families would be contacted as soon as possible.
“We will do everything in our power to return their loved ones to them as quickly as possible,” El Paso County Coroner Leon Kelly said in a statement at the time. "The large number and condition of those remains will make this challenging."
FBI teams specializing in mass-casualty disasters, such as plane crashes and 9/11, were brought in to help process the scene, along with multiple state and local agencies.
Upon hearing about the gruesome discovery, people who'd entrusted their deceased loved ones' bodies ro Return to Nature for cremation services and were still awaiting the remains wondered if their family members were among the stacks of corpses.
"Suddenly it’s like, ‘Oh my God’, I’ve lost him all over again,” Mary Simons, whose husband had died of pneumonia in August 2023, told the AP. "It's like the grieving process is starting all over again."
The Fremont County Sheriff's Office updated the recovered body count on Oct. 17, 2023, to "at least 189."
The remains found belonged to adults, children and fetuses, FBI Agent Cohen testified at a Jan. 11, 2024, hearing after criminal charges were filed against the Hallfords. He said that 23 of the bodies dated back to 2019, while 61 were from 2020. Several dozen sets of remains had yet to be identified, he testified.
“It looked like something you’d like to forget but can’t," Cohen said, per the AP, recalling the disturbing conditions authorities witnessed, including flies and maggots throughout the building and bodily fluids on the floor.
Also during the hearing, prosecutors referenced text messages between Jon and Carie that indicated he was concerned about being found out as far back as 2020.
“My one and only focus is keeping us out of jail," he wrote to his wife, according to the prosecution.
Another purported text from Jon to Carie seemed to discuss ways to get rid of the bodies, according to DA's Office investigator Kevin Clark. It read: "Options: A, build a new machine ASAP. B, dig a big hole and use lye. Where? C, dig a small hole and build a large fire. Where? D, I go to prison, which is probably going to happen."
Who Are the Families That Sent Their Deceased Loved Ones to Return to Nature for Burial or Cremation?
In addition to the bodies that had piled up, investigators determined that the home had returned ground-up concrete instead of ashes to some of the deceased's families.
Angelika Stedman, whose daughter Chanel died on Nov. 23, 2019, "took a little bit" of what she had been told was her child's ashes and added water, she said in ID's The Curious Case of... episode. "It solidified like cement does...It was like a knife being stabbed in my heart and twisted. Where is my daughter?"
FBI Agent Cohen testified at the 2024 hearing that investigators found animal remains and bags of packaged concrete at the Return to Nature facility.
Crystina Page thought she was carrying her son David Jackson Page's ashes in the pendant she'd worn around her neck since his death in 2019. David was 20 when he was fatally shot by law enforcement, and Crystina had also been toting ashes in a red urn all over the country while advocating for police reform.
Instead, she learned on Oct. 24, 2023, that David's body was among the pile-up at the funeral home, she said in the show. "The coroner told me that my son was left in the building uncovered and exposed," Crystina said. "He was dumped out of his body bag...into the corner of an inoperable refrigerator and then covered with dozens of bodies, and then left there to rot for four years."
Heather DeWolf, whose son Zachary Alexander DeWolf died in 2020, said in the show that she and Zach's brothers took a closer look at the ashes she received from Return to Nature and found metal discs.
"My son had no medical devices inside of his body," she said. "I believe I have somebody else. I believe those ashes are human, but I believe they are not my human. If I have somebody else's loved one, where's my son? Who has my son?"
What Happened to the Owners of Return to Nature?
Jon and Carie fled Colorado for Oklahoma after authorities closed in on Return to Nature, alleged a federal affidavit filed in November 2023.
The couple were arrested in Wagoner, Okla., on a warrant issued in Colorado accusing them of 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and 50-plus counts of forgery.
Attorney for the 4th Judicial District Michael Allen told reporters in announcing the charges Nov. 6 in Colorado Springs that more details would not be forthcoming to protect the ongoing investigation, but that the charging documents were "absolutely shocking."
Crystina Page, toting her red urn, was at the press conference, where she said, per the AP, "For four years, I’ve marched all over this country with this urn believing it to be my son. My son has been laying there rotting for four years...It’s the most horrendous feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”
The arrests, she added, “makes it feel like there’s an end in sight.”
In April 2024, the Hallfords were indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly spending nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds on personal trips, jewelry, cosmetic surgery and other non-business expenses, according to the indictment unsealed that month. They were also accused in the indictment of accepting $130,000 for burial and cremation services they never provided and on at least two occasions burying the wrong body.
Where Are Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford Now?
In their federal case, Jon and Carie pleaded guilty in October 2024 to a count apiece of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado. Their plea agreement stipulated that they admit to engaging in pandemic relief fraud and defrauding customers; in exchange, prosecutors wouldn't seek more than 15 years in prison for each.
As for their Colorado case, they each pleaded guilty in November 2024 to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, for the 189 decaying bodies and two errant burials, according to the AP. Per the terms of their plea deals, the other charges against them were dropped.
E! News reached out to Jon and Carie's respective attorneys but did not hear back. Jon has been represented by a federal public defender, whose office generally does not comment on cases.
Prosecutors have recommended a 20-year prison sentence for Jon and 15 to 20 years for Carie. They're scheduled to be sentenced on April 18, 2025.