Funeral Home Owner Sentenced After Defrauding Grieving Families with Fake Ashes While Hiding Their Loved Ones' Bodies

Carie Hallford was handed almost the maximum sentence on Monday, March 16

NEED TO KNOW

• Carie Hallford was sentenced on federal fraud charges in a Colorado court on Monday, March 16
• Carie was sentenced in a large-scale scheme in which she and ex-husband Jon Halford deceived customers at their Return to Nature Funeral Home by giving them fake ashes and keeping nearly 200 decaying bodies instead of properly burying or cremating them
• Carie’s ex-husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2025

After defrauding grieving families by giving them fake ashes of their loved ones, as their bodies decomposed, a former funeral home owner has been sentenced.

Carie Hallford was sentenced on a federal fraud charge on Monday, March 16. The court determined that Carie, 48, had taken $130,000 in funeral expenses from customers, and issued urns containing concrete mix in lieu of the actual ashes of their family members, according to the Associated Press.

The wife, who acted in the fraud scheme along with her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

“It takes an exceptionally sick person to even think of a fraud scheme like Jon and Carie Hallford’s, let alone carry it out," United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly said in court, according to a press release.

"Their disregard for fundamental human dignity is almost beyond belief,” McNeilly continued, adding, “I hope the victims take some solace in the serious sentences handed down to both Hallfords. This case doesn’t right the wrongs the victims have suffered, but it does stand as an unequivocal condemnation of the Hallfords’ horrific criminal conduct.”

FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski said in a release that Carie "defrauded grieving families she agreed to serve while deceiving the federal government in order to obtain benefits meant to assist businesses during the pandemic.”

“She denied families well deserved dignity and showed blatant disregard for government rules," Koldjeski continued. "She lied and exploited families and systems to enrich her lifestyle with absolutely zero regard for the great harm she caused to so many."

Carie pleaded guilty in August 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and admitted before the court that she also deceived customers and defrauded the federal government. The fraud included $900,000 in COVID-19 pandemic small business aid, according to AP.

In turn, the couple neglected to use the loans for their business. They spent the money on high-end cars, cryptocurrency, designer items from Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and other beauty treatments, per AP.

Carie will be sentenced on state charges on April 24, per The New York Times.

In addition to the 18-year prison sentence, Carie was ordered to pay $1.07 million in restitution with three years of supervised release, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado.

Carie "mishandled at least 190 bodies," per the press release. Her ex-husband Jon was sentenced in June 2025 to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,070,413.74 in restitution for his role in the conspiracy, according to the release.

"The plea agreement further states that Carie Hallford handled much of the banking, invoicing, contracting with customers, filing of required paperwork, bookkeeping and communications with customers," the press release reads. "Both defendants routinely prepared death certificates for the deceased and then filed those certificates with the State of Colorado’s Electronic Death Registry."

The Hallfords both misrepresented the "method of disposition" on the certificates, claiming the bodies were cremated or buried, when instead they were left to rot, per the release.

Two of the wrong bodies were determined to have been buried by the funeral home, AP reports, citing a lengthy investigation from local authorities.

She asked U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang for mercy, telling her in court that she "became another person because of abuse and manipulation" during her marriage to ex-husband Jon, AP reports.

“I was always trying to please a person who was impossible to please,” Carie said in court, per the outlet.

Elizabeth Gannon, a victim of the Hallfords' fraudulent actions, testified that she has “ongoing trauma” after using Return to Nature Funeral Home for the burials of her parents in 2022 and 2023, per the AP.

“She chose to take our money and our loved ones’ remains knowing exactly what Jon intended to do with the bodies,” Gannon said, according to the outlet.

Carie and her ex-husband Jon were arrested in 2023 after nearly 200 decaying bodies were allegedly found improperly stored at the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which the former couple owned and operated at the time in Penrose, Colo., PEOPLE previously reported.

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The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced that Jon and Carie were arrested in Wagoner, Okla., on felony charges of abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery, according to a 2023 press release. The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office had initially responded to reports of a foul odor coming from the facility, authorities said at the time.

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