Hallfords Ordered to Pay Return to Nature Families $950 Million
In what has been described as a “symbolic” victory, a judge has ordered former Return to Nature Jon and Carie Hallford to pay $950 million to the families of the 189 people the couple left to decompose in their Penrose, Colorado facility for up to four years.
A horrific saga
This ruling is just the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of one of deathcare’s most infamous and revolting stories. Since authorities discovered what they initially believed to be 115 bodies in the so-called “green” funeral home’s storage facility on October 6, 2023, families have experienced an increasingly devastating roller coaster of emotions and events.
First, the body count was amended to include even more victims — 189 in total — some of which were believed by loved ones to have been cremated by Return to Nature as early as 2019. One by one, families who had received “fake ashes” were notified as forensic investigators worked feverishly to identify the individuals found within the stacks of remains; some are still waiting to find out if they actually received a loved one’s cremains or what is suspected to be concrete mix.
Next, families had to wait more than a month for authorities to apprehend the Hallfords, who had immediately fled the state after the gruesome discovery. And lastly, families were upset when each of the Hallfords were offered plea deals with 20 years or less of jail time. These deals will expire on October 4.
While Jon Hallford remains in jail, Carie was released on $100,000 bond earlier this year.
Dipping into an empty well
The Hallfords are expected to appear in a Colorado court in late September for arraignment on 289 state charges including money laundering, forgery, and 190 counts of abuse of a corpse. They are also facing federal wire fraud charges, to which they pleaded not guilty in April and for which they will appear in court on October 20.
The $950 million judgment in the civil case against the couple offers little consolation to the families, as it’s unlikely they will receive a dime in compensation. Although the Hallfords reportedly collected $130,000 from families for cremation services that were never carried out, that money was spent to support the couple’s lavish lifestyle.
The couple used the families’ payments, the proceeds from a Small Business Administration loan, and nearly $900,000 of fraudulently-obtained COVID-19 federal relief funds on a GMC Yukon, an Infiniti, at least one $1,500 Las Vegas dinner, and cryptocurrency, among other things. The federal wire charges actually stem from the COVID payout.
Despite these massive amounts of income, the Hallfords had reportedly missed multiple tax payments in 2023. They were also evicted from their primary Return to Nature facility in Colorado Springs for nonpayment. Their dire financial state has led outlets and families to call the ruling “largely symbolic,” as they don’t believe they’ll ever receive any proceeds from the judgment.
“I’m never going to get a dime from them, so, I don’t know, it’s a little frustrating,” Crystina Page told the Associated Press. She paid the Hallfords to cremate her son in 2019, and then carried his urn across the country before learning that the urn most likely did not hold her son’s remains.
“A slap in the face”
Neither of the Hallfords were present during the civil trial, nor have they acknowledged the verdict. Jon Hallford is being represented by a public defender, while Carie has a private attorney. Neither would offer a comment on behalf of their clients.
“I would have preferred that they participate, if only because I wanted to put them on the witness stand, have them put under oath and ask them how they came to do this, not once, not twice, but hundreds of times,” said Andrew Swan, the attorney who represented the families in the case.
