A Colorado judge has ordered a funeral home to pay more than $950 million to families whose deceased loved ones were found in various stages of decomposition.
Hundreds of families turned to The Return to Nature home in the town of Penrose, Colorado, for assistance after the loss of their loved ones, hoping owners Jon and Carie Hallford would take care of them.
Families received ashes back from the funeral home, which also specialized in burials without chemicals and in biodegradable caskets, but last October the home came under investigation.
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Authorities received reports of a foul odour coming from the property, and discovered almost 200 bodies which had not been properly disposed of.
Court hearings later heard how floors inside the building were covered with a fluid that was the result of the decomposition of bodies, while affidavits described bodies being strewn throughout rooms and stacked up.
It was found that from the time between 2020 to 2023, Jon Hallford bought more than 600 pounds of concrete mix which is thought to have been used to represent ashes when given to the families.
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After discovering what had happened to their deceased loved ones, more than 100 family members launched a civil case against the Hallfords.
The owners of the funeral home are also facing hundreds of state and federal criminal charges, including abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery.
The civil case was taken to Judge Lynette Wenner, who ordered the owners of the funeral home to pay $956,825,044.10 to the families involved in the case.
The judgement was outlined in a letter from the law firm representing the families on August 5, which described the payout as the largest in Colorado's history.
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However, it's been noted that the Hallfords are experiencing serious financial difficulties which may prevent the families from getting the money they're owed.
Neither Jon nor Carie appeared at hearings for the civil case.
Mother Crystina Page, whose son was found in the funeral home in October, spoke to KKTV about the ruling and said: “I want to jump up and down and be very, very happy. But the reality is that, number one, we’ll never see a dime of it.”
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Page described the ruling as 'bittersweet', explaining: "It feels validating to know that a judge has determined that this loss was this significant."
However, she doesn't feel the ruling makes up for what happened to her son.
“So with or without this judgment, I feel like they still owe me,” she said.
Following the judgement in the civil case, the Hallfords are scheduled to appear in court on September 20 for their criminal case.
Emily Brown