COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — One of the owners of a southern Colorado funeral home where 190 bodies were found made a court appearance Wednesday via video in El Paso County, and the judge kept her bond at $2 million.
Carie Hallford is being held on 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, as well as dozens of other felony charges that include theft, money laundering and forgery.
Carie Hallford and her husband Jon Hallford are the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose. The two were arrested this month in Oklahoma. Both of them have been extradited to Colorado.
Jon Hallford has also been booked into the El Paso County jail, according to jail records. It's unclear when he will appear in court.
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Many of the bodies that were found "improperly stored" at Return to Nature were reported to the state as buried or cremated, and loved ones were provided with items that were purported to be remains, according to a federal complaint filed in the case. The Penrose funeral home's license expired in November 2022.
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said the case is being prosecuted in that district because the business is centered in Colorado Springs, despite the bodies being found in Penrose, which is in Fremont County.
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