Jon Hallford, the owner of a Colorado funeral home, has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison after admitting to stashing 189 decomposing bodies in a building and giving grieving families fake ashes. The sentencing took place on Friday, with Judge Eric Bentley describing the harm caused as 'unspeakable and incomprehensible'.
During the hearing, family members called Hallford a 'monster' and urged the judge to impose the maximum 50-year sentence. Many recounted recurring nightmares of decomposing flesh and maggots since learning the fate of their loved ones. Hallford apologised and said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life.
Prosecutors revealed that between 2019 and 2023, Hallford and his former wife, Carie Hallford, stored bodies at room temperature in a building in Penrose, south of Colorado Springs. Investigators found bodies stacked on top of each other, with swarms of bugs and decomposition fluid covering the floors. The remains included adults, infants and fetuses.
The couple also gave families dry concrete that resembled ashes, undoing their grieving process. One victim, a former army sergeant, was mistakenly buried in a veterans' cemetery before being identified and given full military honours. The Hallfords spent lavishly during the period, including luxury cars, cryptocurrency and designer goods, while charging more than $1,200 per customer.
Both pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse. Carie Hallford is due to be sentenced on 24 April and faces 25 to 35 years in prison. Jon Hallford also received a 20-year federal sentence for pandemic-era fraud, to be served concurrently with the state term.
