Funeral home owners allegedly spent Covid relief funds on lavish vacations
The owners of a “green” funeral home where 190 bodies were left to rot have been charged with fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds and spending it on holidays, jewellery and cosmetic surgery.
Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners of Return To Nature Funeral Home, were arrested in November last year and face more than 200 criminal charges related to leaving bodies piled on top of each other inside an insect-infested storage unit.
They now face a further 15 charges alleging that they spent thousands of dollars in Covid-19 relief funds during the time the bodies were in their care.
The Hallfords allegedly provided false information to the US business administration in order to obtain relief funds totaling $882,300 (£708,000).
They are accused of misrepresenting their circumstances, including by claiming that Mr Hallford owed child support and that the funeral home was not engaged in any criminal activity at the time they applied for the relief funds.
According to an indictment filed in the US District Court of Colorado, the couple are accused of using the money to pay for luxury holidays to California, Florida and Las Vegas, two vehicles – a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti worth over $120,000 – $31,000 in cryptocurrency, laser body sculpting, and luxury goods from designers Gucci and Tiffany & Co.
The couple also collected more than $130,000 from grieving families for cremation and burial services which they never provided, the court documents said.
They also allegedly gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and that they buried the wrong body on at least two occasions.
The couple were both out on bond after their initial arrest following the discovery of the bodies in October last year.
The gruesome discovery was made after people reported a stomach-churning odour coming from a storage unit belonging to the couple.
Eighteen of the 190 bodies are yet to be identified, according to the latest update from the Fremont County coroner in Colorado.
Angelika Stedman hired the funeral home to cremate the remains of Chanelle, her 24-year-old daughter, after she died suddenly.
But Ms Stedman still doesn’t know what happened to her daughter’s body.
“It’s really hard to think, and you really don’t know where your child’s ashes are or if what they gave you are your child’s ashes”, Ms Stedman told local media at the time the news broke.
The Hallford’s hearing is scheduled for Thursday where a judge will decide if they are to be released pending trial.
