Funeral Home Concealed 189 Bodies While Distributing Counterfeit Ashes to Mourning Families
Derrick Johnson fulfilled his mother's final wish in 2023 by burying her ashes beneath a golden dewdrop tree at his Maui home, overlooking where her grandchildren would play. This solemn act was shattered when the FBI contacted him months later, revealing a horrific truth: his mother's body was among 189 decaying corpses improperly stored by a Colorado funeral home that had provided families with fake ashes.
The Devastating Discovery
On February 4, 2024, while teaching an eighth-grade gym class, Johnson received a life-altering phone call. "Are you the son of Ellen Lopes?" a woman asked before advising him to google "Return to Nature" funeral home. What Johnson found in the search results left him breathless and nauseated: hundreds of bodies stacked together, inches of decomposition fluid, swarms of insects, and traumatized investigators at a Colorado facility.
Two FBI agents visited Johnson the following week, confirming his worst fears. His mother's body was among the 189 that Return to Nature's owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, had stored in a Penrose, Colorado building between 2019 and October 2023. This represented one of the largest discoveries of decaying bodies at a U.S. funeral home, prompting Colorado lawmakers to overhaul the state's previously lax funeral home regulations.
A Pattern of Deception and Fraud
The Hallfords' crimes extended beyond mishandling human remains. They admitted to defrauding the federal government of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid while simultaneously pocketing approximately $130,000 that clients had paid for cremations. Even as their bills went unpaid, authorities revealed the couple purchased Tiffany jewelry, luxury vehicles, and laser-body sculpting treatments.
Arrested in Oklahoma in November 2023, the Hallfords faced charges of abusing nearly 200 corpses. Hundreds of families learned that the ashes they had ceremonially spread or kept close weren't actually their loved ones' remains. Instead, the bodies of mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, and infants had been left to decompose in a room-temperature Colorado building.
Personal Betrayal and Trauma
Johnson, who had called Return to Nature in early February 2023 after his mother's death, recalled Carie Hallford's assurances that she would take good care of his mother. Days later, Hallford handed Johnson a blue box containing a zip-tied plastic bag with gray powder, claiming it contained his mother's ashes. "She lied to me over the phone. She lied to me through email. She lied to me in person," Johnson told The Associated Press.
The following day, that same box lay surrounded by flowers and photos at a memorial service where a preacher intoned "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Since learning the truth, the 45-year-old Johnson has suffered panic attacks and been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He promised himself he would speak at the Hallfords' sentencing hearings to ask for maximum penalties.
The Gruesome Investigation
On October 3, 2023, Detective Sgt. Michael Jolliffe and deputy coroner Laura Allen responded to complaints about a rank smell emanating from a Penrose building marked with Return to Nature signage. The odor was so potent that neighbors compared it to rancid manure or rotting fish, with one reporting that her dog consistently headed toward the building whenever off-leash.
Investigators discovered dark stains under the door and on the building's exterior that resembled decomposition fluids. When inspector Joseph Berry peered through a small opening in covered windows, he saw what appeared to be body bags on the floor. A search warrant was quickly obtained.
Inside the Nightmare Facility
On October 5, 2023, investigators wearing protective suits entered the 2,500-square-foot building. Inside, they discovered a large bone grinder next to a bag of Quikcrete suspected of being used to mimic ashes. The 189 bodies were stacked in nearly a dozen rooms, sometimes so high they blocked doorways. Some had decayed for years, while others had been there for several months.
Many bodies were in body bags, some wrapped in sheets and duct tape, while others were half-exposed on gurneys, in plastic totes, or lay with no covering. Investigators found swarms of bugs and maggots, with body bags filled with decomposition fluid. Some bags had ripped, requiring five-gallon buckets to catch the leaks. Removal teams "trudged through layers of human decomposition on the floor."
Identification Challenges and Further Horrors
Authorities identified bodies using fingerprints, hospital bracelets, and medical implants. In one particularly disturbing case, investigators exhumed what was supposed to be the burial site of a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Instead of the veteran's body, they found a woman's deteriorated remains wrapped in duct tape and plastic sheets. The veteran's actual body was discovered in the Penrose building, covered in maggots.
Surveillance Evidence and Disturbing Communications
Surveillance footage from September 9, 2023, showed a man appearing to be Jon Hallford entering the Penrose building. Camera footage inside captured a body wearing a diaper and hospital socks on a gurney. The man flipped the body onto the floor before "appearing to wipe the remaining decomposition from the gurney onto other bodies in the room." In a text to his wife about the incident, Hallford wrote, "while I was making the transfer, I got people juice on me."
Seeking Justice and Healing
Johnson has slowly improved through therapy, engaging more with his students and children. He began practicing speaking at the Hallfords' sentencing hearings during therapy sessions, envisioning standing before the judge and the couple who betrayed his trust. "Justice is the part that is missing from this whole equation," Johnson said. "Maybe somehow this justice frees me. And then there's part of me that's scared it won't, because it probably won't."
After his mother's body was identified, Johnson flew to Colorado in March 2024, where her remains lay in a brown box at a crematorium. "I don't think you blame me, but I still want to tell you I'm sorry," he recalled saying while placing his hand on the box. He then loaded his mother's body into the cremator and pushed the button himself.
Jon Hallford faces sentencing with potential prison terms of 30 to 50 years, while Carie Hallford will be sentenced in April following the judge's acceptance of their plea agreements in December. Attorneys for the Hallfords did not respond to requests for comment about the case that has traumatized hundreds of families across Colorado and beyond.
