Latest news with #funeralhome
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decomposing bodies sentenced to 20 years in prison
A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison in federal court Friday for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in Covid-19 aid. Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year and had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison. Federal prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence and Hallford's attorney asked for 10 years. In court before the sentencing, Hallford told the judge that he opened Return to Nature to make a positive impact in people's lives, 'then everything got completely out of control, especially me.' 'I am so deeply sorry for my actions,' he said. 'I still hate myself for what I've done.' Hallford will be sentenced in August in a separate state case in which he pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse. Hallford and co-owner Carie Hallford were accused of storing the bodies between 2019 and 2023 and sending families fake ashes. Investigators described finding the bodies in 2023 stacked atop each other throughout a squat, bug-infested building in Penrose, a small town about a two-hour drive south of Denver. The morbid discovery revealed to many families that their loved ones weren't cremated and that the ashes they had spread or cherished were fake. In two cases, the wrong body was buried, according to court documents. Many families said it undid their grieving processes. Some relatives had nightmares, others have struggled with guilt, and at least one wondered about their loved one's soul. Among the victims who spoke during Friday's sentencing was a boy named Colton Sperry. With his head poking just above the lectern, he told the judge about his grandmother, who Sperry said was a second mother to him and died in 2019. Her body languished inside the Return to Nature building for four years until the discovery, which plunged Sperry into depression. He said he told his parents at the time, 'If I die too, I could meet my grandma in heaven and talk to her again.' His parents brought him to the hospital for a mental health check, which led to therapy and an emotional support dog. 'I miss my grandma so much,' he told the judge through tears. Federal prosecutors accused both Hallfords of pandemic aid fraud, siphoning the aid and spending it and customer's payments on a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, luxury items from stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and even laser body sculpting. Derrick Johnson told the judge that he travelled 3,000 miles to testify over how his his mother was 'thrown into a festering sea of death.' 'I lie awake wondering, was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?' said Johnson. 'While the bodies rotted in secret, (the Hallfords) lived, they laughed and they dined,' he added. 'My mom's cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.' Hallford's attorney, Laura H. Suelau, asked for a lower sentence of 10 years in the hearing Friday, saying that Hallford 'knows he was wrong, he admitted he was wrong' and hasn't offered an excuse. Asking for a 15-year sentence for Hallford, Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff described the scene inside the building. Investigators couldn't move into some rooms because the bodies were piled so high and in various states of decay. FBI agents had to put boards down so they could walk above the fluid, which was later pumped out. Carie Hallford is scheduled to go to trial in the federal case in September, the same month as her next hearing in the state case in which she's also charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse.
CTV News
3 hours ago
- General
- CTV News
Vancouver woman mistakenly declared dead after filing late husband's tax return
June Miller and her late husband Giorgio pose for a selfie. After submitting his final tax return, she found the CRA had declared her dead as well. When June Miller's husband Giorgio died last September after 35 years of marriage, her world came crashing down. 'We were best friends, we did everything together,' said Miller. When she went to file Giorgio's final tax return, she was told it would not be accepted online, and needed to be mailed. 'So I put his and mine in the same envelope and shipped them off,' said Miller. She was flabbergasted when she got her notice of assessment back from the Canada Revenue Agency. It was addressed to 'the estate of the late June Miller.' 'I went to go online to look at my account, but it was locked. So I called them and they said, 'You're deceased.' I said, 'You're talking to me! Deceased, what are you saying? You have to change that,'' said Miller. 'And they said, 'Well, there's a process. You have to prove that you're alive.'' Miller went to Service Canada in person and submitted all of her identifying documents, along with a letter from the funeral home that handled her husband's service that said Giorgio had died, not June. She also presented a letter from her doctor saying she is very much alive. But so far, it hasn't been enough to bring her back from the dead in the CRA's eyes. 'I said, 'I really want you to help me because I don't want to be dead.' My goal is to be 107, and they took that away a month ago,' said Miller. The 65-year-old widow has just retired, but she's been told she's unlikely to get Canada Pension Plan payments while she's declared dead. Needing income, she'd like to go back to work, but because her social insurance number has been deactivated, she needs to apply for a new one. 'There was a point where I laughed,' Miller said, adding her late husband would find some humour in this situation too. 'Giorgio is up there and he's laughing, going, 'Oh June, look at this mess you got yourself into.' And then I was annoyed and angry, because I'm talking and I'm repeating and I'm talking and I'm repeating, and nobody's getting it at Canada Revenue Agency.' In an email, the CRA said it can't discuss Miller's case due to privacy, but outlined some possible reasons for a person to mistakenly be declared dead. 'It could be human error, a miscommunication from another government department, or, most often, a mistake made when a return is filed on behalf of a deceased person with an incorrect SIN number,' the email said. The CRA added when it does happen, the agency tries to address it immediately. 'We understand that this can be both alarming and have financial implications. Our goal is to minimize any occurrence, and if it occurs, deal with it quickly. Generally, the issue can be quickly resolved once we are advised of the error,' the email said. Miller says she's spoken to many officials both in person and on the phone and no one seems to be able to help her. She's been told she has to wait while a board looks into her status, adding: 'They're going to review it, and deem me alive or dead.'
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Funeral home owner who stashed 190 decomposing bodies in abandoned building and sent families fake ashes jailed
A TWISTED funeral home owner who stashed 190 decomposing bodies in a bug-infested building and handed grieving families fake ashes has been jailed for 20 years. Jon Hallford, co-owner of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in southern Colorado, was sentenced in federal court on Friday. 5 5 5 The 44-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud over a gruesome scheme that shocked the nation. He admitted fleecing clients and siphoning nearly $900,000 in Covid-19 relief funds meant for struggling businesses — splurging the cash on luxury shopping sprees, laser body sculpting, flashy cars and cryptocurrency. His sentence is five years more than prosecutors requested, and double what his own lawyer pushed for. 'I am so deeply sorry for my actions,' Hallford told the judge. 'I still hate myself for what I've done.' He added that he opened the funeral home hoping to 'make a positive impact in people's lives,' but admitted: 'Then everything got completely out of control, especially me.' Bodies piled up 'like lumber ' Hallford and his wife, Carie Hallford, who co-owned the funeral home, ran their grisly scam between 2019 and 2023. Investigators were first alerted in October last year when neighbours in Penrose, a tiny town two hours south of Denver, complained of a foul stench. Cops who turned up made a stomach-churning discovery — at least 190 bodies stacked atop each other in various states of decay, so badly decomposed that FBI agents had to lay boards over the sludge to navigate the rooms. Some corpses had been left there for years, including the body of Colton Sperry's grandmother who died in 2019. Chilling details emerge after number of rotting bodies found at 'green' Colorado funeral home rises to 189 In court on Friday, the young boy tearfully told the judge he fell into a deep depression when he found out. He told his parents at the time: 'If I die too, I could meet my grandma in heaven and talk to her again.' His father later rushed him to hospital for a mental health check, which led to therapy and an emotional support dog. Another victim, Derrick Johnson, travelled nearly 3,000 miles to tell the court how his mother was 'thrown into a festering sea of death'. 'I lie awake wondering: was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?' he said. 'While the bodies rotted in secret, [the Hallfords] lived, they laughed and they dined. 'My mom's cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.' Two families even buried the wrong bodies after being sent urns of worthless dust — devastating relatives who said it destroyed their ability to properly grieve. 5 5 Lavish spending spree Federal prosecutors revealed the Hallfords drained the pandemic aid and clients' money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle. They splashed out on a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, snapped up Gucci and Tiffany jewellery, spent $31,000 on cryptocurrency, and paid for laser body sculpting treatments. The sentencing also included an order for Jon Hallford to pay more than $1 million in restitution — with $193,000 to be divided among the victims' families and the rest to the Small Business Administration. Hallford will serve his 20-year term concurrently with a state sentence expected in August, after he pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse and hundreds of other state charges including forgery and money laundering. Meanwhile, his wife Carie withdrew her guilty plea in the federal case earlier this year and will now go to trial in September. She also faces 191 counts of corpse abuse in the state case. The pair were arrested in Oklahoma last November after going on the run. By then, the decaying funeral home had already been torn down.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decomposing bodies sentenced to 20 years prison
A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes received the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison on Friday, for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 aid. Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year. Prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence and Hallford's attorney asked for 10 years. Judge Nina Wang said that although the case focused on a single fraud charge, the circumstances and scale of Hallford's crime and the emotional damage to families warranted the longer sentence. 'This is not an ordinary fraud case,' she said. In court before the sentencing, Hallford told the judge that he opened Return to Nature to make a positive impact in people's lives, 'then everything got completely out of control, especially me.' 'I am so deeply sorry for my actions,' he said. 'I still hate myself for what I've done.' Hallford will be sentenced in August in a separate state case in which he pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse. Hallford and co-owner Carie Hallford were accused of storing the bodies between 2019 and 2023 and sending families fake ashes. Investigators described finding the bodies in 2023 stacked atop each other throughout a squat, bug-infested building in Penrose, a small town about a two-hour drive south of Denver. The morbid discovery revealed to many families that their loved ones weren't cremated and that the ashes they had spread or cherished were fake. In two cases, the wrong body was buried, according to court documents. Many families said it undid their grieving processes. Some relatives had nightmares, others have struggled with guilt, and at least one wondered about their loved one's soul. Among the victims who spoke during Friday's sentencing was a boy named Colton Sperry. With his head poking just above the lectern, he told the judge about his grandmother, who Sperry said was a second mother to him and died in 2019. Her body languished inside the Return to Nature building for four years until the discovery, which plunged Sperry into depression. He said he told his parents at the time, 'If I die too, I could meet my grandma in heaven and talk to her again.' His parents brought him to the hospital for a mental health check, which led to therapy and an emotional support dog. 'I miss my grandma so much,' he told the judge through tears. Federal prosecutors accused both Hallfords of pandemic aid fraud, siphoning the aid and spending it and customer's payments on a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, luxury items from stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and even laser body sculpting. Derrick Johnson told the judge that he travelled 3,000 miles to testify over how his his mother was 'thrown into a festering sea of death.' 'I lie awake wondering, was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?" said Johnson. 'While the bodies rotted in secret, (the Hallfords) lived, they laughed and they dined' he added. 'My moms cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first class flight.' Hallford's attorney, Laura H. Suelau, asked for a lower sentence of 10 years in the hearing Friday, saying that Hallford 'knows he was wrong, he admitted he was wrong' and hasn't offered an excuse. His sentencing in the state case is scheduled in August. Asking for a 15 year sentence for Hallford, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff described the scene inside the building. Investigators couldn't move into some rooms because the bodies were piled so high and in various states of decay. FBI agents had to put boards down so they could walk above the fluid, which was later pumped out. Carie Hallford is scheduled to go to trial in the federal case in September, the same month as her next hearing in the state case in which she's also charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse.
CNN
8 hours ago
- CNN
Funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decomposing bodies sentenced to 20 years in prison
FacebookTweetLink Follow A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison in federal court Friday for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in Covid-19 aid. Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year and had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison. Federal prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence and Hallford's attorney asked for 10 years. In court before the sentencing, Hallford told the judge that he opened Return to Nature to make a positive impact in people's lives, 'then everything got completely out of control, especially me.' 'I am so deeply sorry for my actions,' he said. 'I still hate myself for what I've done.' Hallford will be sentenced in August in a separate state case in which he pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse. Hallford and co-owner Carie Hallford were accused of storing the bodies between 2019 and 2023 and sending families fake ashes. Investigators described finding the bodies in 2023 stacked atop each other throughout a squat, bug-infested building in Penrose, a small town about a two-hour drive south of Denver. The morbid discovery revealed to many families that their loved ones weren't cremated and that the ashes they had spread or cherished were fake. In two cases, the wrong body was buried, according to court documents. Many families said it undid their grieving processes. Some relatives had nightmares, others have struggled with guilt, and at least one wondered about their loved one's soul. Among the victims who spoke during Friday's sentencing was a boy named Colton Sperry. With his head poking just above the lectern, he told the judge about his grandmother, who Sperry said was a second mother to him and died in 2019. Her body languished inside the Return to Nature building for four years until the discovery, which plunged Sperry into depression. He said he told his parents at the time, 'If I die too, I could meet my grandma in heaven and talk to her again.' His parents brought him to the hospital for a mental health check, which led to therapy and an emotional support dog. 'I miss my grandma so much,' he told the judge through tears. Federal prosecutors accused both Hallfords of pandemic aid fraud, siphoning the aid and spending it and customer's payments on a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, luxury items from stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and even laser body sculpting. Derrick Johnson told the judge that he travelled 3,000 miles to testify over how his his mother was 'thrown into a festering sea of death.' 'I lie awake wondering, was she naked? Was she stacked on top of others like lumber?' said Johnson. 'While the bodies rotted in secret, (the Hallfords) lived, they laughed and they dined,' he added. 'My mom's cremation money likely helped pay for a cocktail, a day at the spa, a first-class flight.' Hallford's attorney, Laura H. Suelau, asked for a lower sentence of 10 years in the hearing Friday, saying that Hallford 'knows he was wrong, he admitted he was wrong' and hasn't offered an excuse. Asking for a 15-year sentence for Hallford, Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff described the scene inside the building. Investigators couldn't move into some rooms because the bodies were piled so high and in various states of decay. FBI agents had to put boards down so they could walk above the fluid, which was later pumped out. Carie Hallford is scheduled to go to trial in the federal case in September, the same month as her next hearing in the state case in which she's also charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse.
