COLORADO — The co-owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home were expected to enter a plea during an arraignment hearing Thursday morning, but a judge granted a motion to postpone the hearing until June.
Jon and Carie Hallford are accused of improperly storing 190 bodies inside the funeral home in Penrose. They each face over 250 felony counts including abuse of a corpse, money laundering, theft, and forgery. Investigators say they were led to the funeral home in Oct. 2023 after reports of a foul odor coming from the building.
During the scheduled arraignment hearing on Thursday, the defense made a motion to continue the hearing due to the "substantial discovery" they say they are still receiving. The prosecution did not object to the postponement of the arraignment. The judge set a tentative trial date starting Oct. 14 for the Hallfords, which is expected to last four weeks.
During a previous court hearing, FBI Special Agent Andrew Cohen testified some bodies found inside the funeral home were left uncovered, some wrapped in sheets and duct tape, and others stacked on top of each other. Special Agent Cohen said brown human decomposition liquids and insects covered the floors of many of the rooms.
Authorities arrested Jon and Carie in Oklahoma in November. The two both posted bond earlier this year after a judge reduced their bond from $2 million cash only to $100,000. The judge ordered the couple to check in with the court multiple times per week, abstain from drugs and alcohol, wear a GPS ankle monitor, and surrender their passport as conditions of their bond.
BACKGROUND
Return to Nature Funeral Home came under a multi-agency investigation in October following reports of a complaint about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they had found nearly 200 bodies in various states of decomposition inside the building that were not properly stored. The two were arrested in Oklahoma in November of 2023.
In what was a multi-agency clean-up effort, coroner offices and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation worked tirelessly for a couple of weeks to remove the bodies from the building before the identification process could begin.
It was not until early November that the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home were arrested in Oklahoma. Jon and Carie Hallford were moved to El Paso County by late November where both appeared in court and had cash bonds set at $2 million.
Following their arrests, News5's Eleanor Sheahan spoke with families who were victims of the funeral home.
WATCH: VICTIMS OF RETURN TO NATURE SHARE WHAT OWNER'S ARRESTS MEAN TO THEM
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