According to a report by CNN on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, the owners of a funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, have been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of deceased individuals whose remains they allegedly mishandled. The judgment, one of the largest in Colorado’s history, follows a class action lawsuit against Carie and Jon Hallford, owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, who are accused of failing to properly cremate or bury 190 bodies entrusted to their care.
The scandal surrounding the Return to Nature Funeral Home first came to light in 2023 when complaints about a foul odor emanating from the premises prompted a state investigation. Authorities soon discovered that the funeral home, which advertised “green burials,” had improperly stored human remains, many of which were decomposing in unsanitary conditions. Reports revealed that the funeral home owners had accepted payments from grieving families for services that were never rendered. Instead of performing cremations or burials, the Hallfords allegedly left bodies to rot in makeshift storage areas, concealed from public view.
In response to the allegations, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Hallfords, representing the families of the 190 deceased individuals whose remains were mishandled. The lawsuit accused the Hallfords of gross negligence, fraud, and emotional distress, among other charges. The defendants failed to respond to the lawsuit, resulting in a default judgment being entered against them.
Judge Lynette Wenner of the Fremont County District Court presided over the case, ultimately awarding more than $956 million in damages to the plaintiffs. With interest, the total judgment could exceed $1 billion, making it the largest monetary judgment in Colorado’s history. Attorney Andrew Swan, who represented the class, expressed the significance of the judgment in a letter to the families of the victims. “There’s some sense of righteous justice in this judgment,” Swan stated. He also noted that each family member in the class action was awarded more than $7 million.
However, Swan acknowledged the challenges in collecting the full amount from the Hallfords, given their financial situation. Despite the substantial judgment, it remains uncertain how much the families will ultimately receive.
In addition to the civil judgment, the Hallfords are facing a slew of federal and state criminal charges related to their conduct. The Colorado Bureau of Investigations arrested them last year, charging them with 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering, and forgery. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury indicted the Halfords on multiple counts, including 13 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The federal indictment accuses the couple of defrauding their funeral home customers by failing to provide the promised cremation or burial services and misusing $882,300 in pandemic relief loans. The Halfords have pleaded not guilty to these charges, and the legal proceedings are ongoing.
Prosecutors have painted a grim picture of the Hallfords’ operation, describing how they “concealed the gruesome collection of bodies… by preventing outsiders from entering their building, covering the windows and doors… and providing false statements to others regarding the foul odor emanating from the building.”
In a statement following the judgment, Judge Wenner emphasized the egregious nature of the Hallfords’ actions, stating, “The Court specifically finds that Defendants acted in a willful and wanton manner,” which justified the exemplary damages awarded to the plaintiffs.
In the words of attorney Andrew Swan, “My colleagues and I hope that the Court’s record-setting judgment validates the experience you suffered, recognizes the pain incurred, and discourages bad actors from engaging in misconduct like this ever again.”