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   From: absolute@scum.com   
      
   The married co-owners of a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200   
   decomposing bodies were found pleaded guilty Friday to corpse abuse.   
      
   Jon and Carie Hallford ran the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which had   
   operations in the Colorado Springs area and in Penrose, Colorado.   
      
   The shocking discovery was made at the Penrose location in October 2023,   
   after the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports from   
   residents of a foul odor coming from the facility. Some of the bodies   
   found had died as far back as 2019, officials said.   
      
   The two pleaded guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse, 4th Judicial   
   District Attorney Michael Allen, whose office prosecuted the case, said.   
   The counts include two instances where the wrong bodies were buried.   
      
   The judge accepted their pleas during a hearing on Friday, though has   
   not yet accepted the plea agreements and will reserve judgment for that   
   until sentencing next year, Allen said.   
      
   Carie Hallford faces 15 to 20 years in prison, and Jon Hallford faces 20   
   years, the district attorney said.   
      
   Their sentencing has been scheduled for April 18, 2025.   
      
   "Obviously this case has been a huge, emotional struggle for all of the   
   families that are present," Allen said outside the El Paso County   
   courthouse on Friday. "The impact on these family members has been   
   immense."   
      
   He acknowledged that the victims will "likely never recover" from the   
   violation of trust but that his office was honored to "achieve justice   
   for them."   
      
   Following the discovery of the bodies, investigators uncovered a scheme   
   in which the couple had been defrauding customers who believed their   
   loved ones would be buried or cremated, according to court documents.   
      
   The couple previously admitted in a related federal case to accepting   
   payment for the services but then never performing them -- in some cases   
   providing dry concrete mix in urns in place of cremains, according to   
   court documents.   
      
   The couple admitted to collecting more than $130,000 from victims for   
   cremation or burial services which they never performed over a more than   
   four-year period, court documents show. They also admitted to conspiring   
   to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration of more than $800,000   
   in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, according to court documents.   
      
   Both pleaded guilty last month in the federal case to one count each of   
   conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They are scheduled to be sentenced in   
   that case on March 20, 2025. They each face up to 20 years in federal   
   prison, prosecutors said.   
      
   Allen said it is conceivable that the state prison sentence would run   
   concurrent to the federal sentence.   
      
   Carie Hallford's bond was revoked during Friday's hearing and she was   
   remanded into custody. Her attorney declined to comment to ABC News.   
      
   Jon Hallford was already in custody. He is represented by the public   
   defender's office, which does not comment on cases.   
      
   https://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-funeral-home-owners-plead-guilty-   
   corpse-abuse/story?id=116146086   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)