The Hallfords’ Haunted House – Current True Crime
By: Nitzaliah Festinger
This month, Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Carie Hallford awaits her upcoming trial. The couple is facing consequences for tampering with bodies and committing various crimes within their funeral home business.
In 2023, Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford, were caught mistreating the dead bodies in their home and laundering money. The couple owned a funeral home and advertised various coronary options. However, they did not actually perform the correct services. For example, they would tell people they cremated their loved one’s body and give them an urn full of random ashes. They also buried the wrong bodies in many instances. Some bodies still remain unidentified. The couple was storing around 200 bodies in their basement when they got caught, after neighbors reported a strong smell coming from their house.
Back in August, a Colorado judge rejected both of Hallford’s plea bargains. The couple and their attorneys proposed that if they pleaded guilty, either of the defendants would only serve up to 20 years in prison. The judge rejected this due to the concerns of family members of the deceased victims. Many testified in court, expressing their grief and how the Hallfords’ actions affected them. One woman spoke about her experience learning that her son’s ashes weren’t really his. Referring to the urn, she said, “I loved it, I cried over it, I held it close during sleepless nights. I kissed him,” Page said. “It wasn’t him at all. … What happened to my son has broken me in ways I cannot repair.”
After hearing this testimony and many similar ones, the judge decided that the damage done by each of the Hallfords was too much to only sentence them to 20 years. He said, “The sentence negotiated by the parties does not adequately account for the harms that these crimes have caused.”
According to NBC News, “Colorado has struggled to effectively oversee funeral homes and, for many years, had some of the weakest regulations in the nation. It’s had a slew of abuse cases.” This is a big issue because if they don’t make more rules, these cases will probably continue to occur. That’s why Colorado started writing new laws in 2024 that will come into effect this coming year.
Colorado has been going through the process of creating these laws for quite some time, and it’s finally going to happen. The first law was signed by Governor Jared Polis and states that all funeral homes and crematories will require routine inspections. The second law, also signed by J. Polis, requires all practicing funeral home owners and crematory operators/technicians to get licensed within the next three years. These laws will hopefully prevent crimes from occurring in this industry.
All in all, the Hallfords’ story is sad, but it’s good that they will face the correct consequences, and the new laws will prevent anything similar from happening again.
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-funeral-home-stacked-bodies-maggots-penrose-return-to-nature/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/funeral-home-owner-stashed-nearly-200-decaying-bodies-set-sentenced-co-rcna226498
https://www.koaa.com/news/local-news/trial-date-set-for-funeral-home-owner-where-200-bodies-were-discovered-in-2023
https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/colorado-springs-funeral-home-operator-sentenced-gruesome-fraud-scheme
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-judge-rejects-plea-carie-hallford/
https://cbi.colorado.gov/news-article/fremont-county-return-to-nature-funeral-home-update
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-judge-rejects-guilty-plea-agreement-for-co-owner-of-funeral-home-where-nearly-200-bodies-discovered/
https://www.kunc.org/news/2024-06-09/colorado-to-tighten-regulations-on-funeral-homes-after-multiple-scandals