Two Colorado funeral home owners apparently sought to cover up their financial difficulties by abandoning nearly 200 bodies that they had agreed to cremate or bury, instead storing the remains in a neglected building in many cases for years, a Colorado judge said Wednesday as he ruled that the criminal case against one of the defendants can go to trial. Judge William Moller cited evidence from prosecutors in deciding that Return to Nature Funeral Home co-owner Carie Hallford can face trial on 260 counts of corpse abuse, money laundering, forgery, and theft, the AP reports. Her husband, funeral home co-owner Jon Hallford, is also in custody.
Prosecutors have revealed text messages between the Hallfords showing they were under growing financial pressures and had fears that they would be caught for mishandling the bodies. As the bodies accumulated, Jon Hallford even suggested getting rid of them by digging a big hole and treating them with lye or setting them on fire, according to the texts presented by the prosecution. Moller said the evidence presented so far, which he had to view in the light most favorable to prosecutors at this point, pointed to a "pattern of ongoing behavior" intended to keep the Hallfords from being caught.
The judge noted that the couple was experimenting with water cremation and thinking of other ways to dispose of the bodies, including burying them with the bodies of others whose families had hired the Hallfords to provide funeral services. They also gave concrete mix to families instead of ashes, the judge said. Other than Sept. 9 surveillance video showing Jon Hallford moving some bodies, Carie Hallford's lawyer, Michael Stuzynski, argued there was no evidence that the treatment of the bodies was anything other than "passive neglect."
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