Nearly 200 abused corpses were found at a funeral home. Why did it take authorities years to act?
A county coroner reported suspicions about bodies being poorly treated by a Colorado funeral home more than three years before nearly 200 decomposing bodies were discovered inside a decrepit building in October, according to newly unsealed court documents that raise questions about how the mistreatment of corpses was able to continue for so long.
The concerns raised by the Fremont County coroner also included worries about the improper refrigeration of bodies and were reported to a state agency in 2020, according to the arrest affidavits for Return to Nature Funeral Home owners Jon and Carie Hallford. But the coroner received no response from the state agency, which has long struggled to effectively oversee the funeral home industry, according to the documents.
Colorado has some of the weakest rules for funeral homes in the nation with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral home operators. The Hallfords allegedly stored bodies as far back as 2019, and the count grew over the next four years, as prosecutors claim they used the money they were taking from grieving families for lavish expenses.
