MAY 24, 2024:
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed two bills into law Friday (May 24, 2024) that overhaul state oversight of the funeral home industry after a series of gruesome discoveries, including 190 discomposing bodies in a facility, families being sent fake ashes and the unauthorized sale of body parts.
The cases put Colorado’s lax funeral home regulations — some of the weakest in the nation — in the spotlight and rocked hundreds of already grieving families.
Some families had ceremonially spread ashes that turned out to be fake. Others said they had nightmares about what their loved ones might have looked like in a decayed state.
“When grieving the loss of a loved one, the last thing a family should worry about is the trustworthiness and professionalism of those entrusted to care for the person who has passed,” Polis said in a statement.
The new laws bring Colorado in line with most other states.
One requires regulators to routinely inspect funeral homes and give them more enforcement power. Another implements licensing for funeral directors and other workers in the industry. They would need to pass background checks and a national exam while possessing degrees and work experience.
Previously, funeral home directors in Colorado didn’t have to graduate from high school, let alone have a degree.
The funeral home industry was generally on board with the changes though some expressed concern that strict requirements for funeral home directors were unnecessary and would make it difficult to find hirable applicants.
The bill signings follow a rocky year for Colorado funeral homes.
In early October, neighbors noticed a putrid smell coming from a building in the town of Penrose about two hours south of Denver. Authorities soon found 190 decaying bodies there including adults, infants and fetuses.
Some were stacked atop each other. Decomposition fluid covered the floors while flies and maggots swarmed.
Almost two dozen bodies dated to 2019 and some 60 more were from 2020. As the bodies were identified, families who had received ashes learned the cremains weren’t their loved ones.
In most states, funeral homes are routinely inspected but no such rules were on the books in Colorado. The owners of the funeral home were arrested in November and collectively face hundreds of charges of abusing corpses and other counts.
Just months later, in February, a woman’s body was found in the back of hearse where a suburban Denver funeral home had left it for over a year. At least 30 sets of cremated remains were found stashed throughout the funeral director’s home.
NOVEMBER 9, 2023:
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NOVEMBER 8, 2023:
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado funeral home owner and his wife have been arrested after the decaying remains of at least 189 people were recently found at his facility. District Attorney Michael Allen said Wednesday (Nov. 8, 2023) that Jon and Carrie Hallford were arrested in Wagoner, Oklahoma, on suspicion of four felonies: abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery. Jon Hallford owns Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, a town about 100 miles south of Denver. Authorities discovered the bodies at a funeral home building Oct. 4, 2023. Neighbors had noticed a bad smell for days. The Hallfords couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Jon Hallford is jailed in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.
OCTOBER 20, 2023:
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OCTOBER 6, 2023, UPDATE:
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OCTOBER 6, 2023:
PENROSE, Colo. (AP) — Authorities in Colorado said Thursday (Oct. 5, 2023) they were investigating the improper storage of human remains at a funeral home that performs “green” burials without embalming chemicals or metal caskets.
The investigation centers on a building owned by the Return to Nature Funeral Home outside Colorado Springs in the small town of Penrose.
Deputies were called to the single-story building Tuesday night in reference to a suspicious incident. Investigators returned the next day with a search warrant and found the improperly stored remains, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office said. The number of human remains found and their condition were not specified.
The sheriff’s office said it was working with state and federal officials on the investigation. Family members who used the funeral home were asked to contact the sheriff’s office. More details were expected to be released by officials at a scheduled news conference Friday morning.
Trash bags could be seen Thursday outside the entrance of the company’s building, with two law enforcement vehicles parked in front. Yellow police tape cordoned off the area and a putrid odor pervaded the air.
A hearse was parked at the back of the building, in a parking lot overgrown with weeds. Near the squat building was a post office and a few scattered homes, spaced out between dry grass and empty lots with parked semi-trucks.
Under Colorado law, green burials are legal but state code requires that any body not buried within 24 hours must be properly refrigerated.
Joyce Pavetti, 73, can see the funeral home from the stoop of her house and said she caught whiffs of a putrid smell in the last few weeks.
“We just assumed it was a dead animal,” she said. On Wednesday night, Pavetti said she could see lights from law enforcement swarming around the building and knew something was going on.
The building has been occupied by different businesses over the years, said Pavetti, who once took yoga classes there. She hasn’t seen anyone in the area recently and noticed the hearse behind the building only in recent months, she said.
Neighbor Ron Alexander thought the smell was coming from a septic tank, adding that Wednesday night’s blur of law enforcement lights “looked like the 4th of July.”
The father of a 25-year-old U.S. Navy serviceman who died last summer said Return to Nature handled his son’s body between the time of its arrival back in Colorado and an Aug. 25 funeral service at Pikes Peak National Cemetery east of Colorado Springs.
“I mean, there’s obviously questions after hearing that there is something going on but there’s not any information that I can go off of to really make any kind of judgement on it,” said Paul Saito Kahler, of Fountain, Colorado.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home provides burial of non-embalmed bodies in biodegradable caskets, shrouds or “nothing at all,” according to its website. The company also provides cremation services. Messages left for the Colorado Springs-based company were not immediately returned.
“No embalming fluids, no concrete vaults. As natural as possible,” it says on its website.
The company charges $1,895 for a “natural burial.” That doesn’t include the cost of a casket and cemetery space, according to the website.
The funeral home also performs cremations that involve no chemicals or unnatural materials — “just you and the Earth, returning to nature,” according to its website.
Return to Nature was established six years ago in Colorado Springs, according to public records.
A green burial refers to burying bodies that have not been embalmed. That’s different from human composting, in which the body is placed in a vessel and transformed into soil.
Fremont County property records show that the funeral home building and lot are owned by Hallfordhomes, LLC, a business with a Colorado Springs address which the Colorado Secretary of State declared delinquent on Oct. 1 for failing to file a routine reporting form that was due at the end of July.
The LLC changed addresses around Colorado Springs three times since its establishment in 2016 with a post office box. Hallfordhomes still owes about $5,000 in 2022 property taxes on its building in Penrose, according to Fremont County records.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home was licensed in Colorado Springs in 2017. There were no disciplinary actions against the company listed on a state license database. There was not a separate license for the Penrose facility and it wasn’t known if one was needed. Messages left with licensing authorities were not immediately returned.
Kathryn Wilson, who lives nearby, said her daughter’s dog would curiously head toward Return to Nature’s building when it slipped its leash. She previously hadn’t given it a second thought, Wilson said, adding that community members were upset so little has been disclosed about what happened.
“Everybody wants more answers,” she said.
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