Daijiworld Media Network – Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, Feb 6: A grieving son’s world was shattered after US federal investigators revealed that his mother’s body was among nearly 200 corpses illegally stored for years at a Colorado funeral home, in what authorities have described as one of the most shocking funeral home scandals in American history.

Derrick Johnson, a school teacher living in Maui, Hawaii, had believed he had laid his mother Ellen Marie Shriver-Lopes to rest in early 2023 after receiving her ashes from the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs. However, in February 2024, the FBI informed him that the ashes handed to him were fake and that his mother’s body was among 189 decomposing remains discovered in a building owned by the funeral home.

According to investigators, Jon and Carie Hallford, who ran Return to Nature, allegedly stored bodies between 2019 and October 2023 in an unrefrigerated facility in Penrose, near Colorado Springs. The grim discovery was made after complaints of a foul smell from the building led authorities to investigate. Inside, officials found bodies stacked across multiple rooms, leaking decomposition fluids, swarming with insects, and in various stages of decay.

Investigators also recovered materials allegedly used to mimic cremated remains, including bags of concrete mix. Authorities said families were deceived into believing their loved ones had been cremated or buried, while the bodies were instead abandoned.

The couple is also accused of defrauding the US government of nearly USD 900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid, while allegedly spending client money on luxury items. Both were arrested in Oklahoma in November 2023 and charged under multiple counts, including abuse of corpses.

Jon Hallford is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday and faces between 30 and 50 years in prison, while Carie Hallford is expected to be sentenced in April. Prosecutors said their actions traumatised hundreds of families nationwide and exposed serious gaps in funeral home regulation, prompting Colorado lawmakers to tighten oversight laws.

Johnson, who later personally oversaw his mother’s cremation after her remains were identified, has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He has vowed to address the court during sentencing, seeking the maximum punishment.

“This wasn’t just negligence. It was a betrayal of trust at the most vulnerable moment of people’s lives,” Johnson said.

Authorities confirmed that all recovered remains have now been handed over for identification and proper final rites, while investigations into the full scale of the fraud and regulatory lapses continue.