Colorado funeral home owners arrested following the discovery of 189 decaying bodies

The owners of a Colorado funeral home were arrested Wednesday after nearly 200 decaying corpses were found improperly stored at their facility.

Jon and Carie Hallford, the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, were arrested on charges of abusing a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery, according to a statement from the district attorney for Colorado's 4th judicial district. The pair were taken into custody in Wagoner, Okla.

Police first searched the funeral home, located roughly 30 miles south of Colorado Springs in the town of Penrose, on Oct. 3, after receiving a report of an "abhorrent smell" coming from the building.

What they found inside was "horrific," according to Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper, who declined to go into further detail during an Oct. 6 press conference on the investigation.

According to its website, Return to Nature offers green and natural burial services, which allow bodies to decompose underground without the use of metal caskets or chemicals.

The practice is legal in the state of Colorado, but the law requires bodies that are not embalmed to be refrigerated within 24 hours of death.

Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller declined to say whether the remains discovered at Return to Nature were intended for natural burial, but he did note that they were "improperly stored."

Investigators originally estimated the 2,500-square-foot building contained about 115 bodies.

But after transporting all remains to the El Paso County Coroner's Office, they've raised that number to 189 individuals, according to a Tuesday update from the Fremont County Sheriff's office. The total number could rise as the identification process continues, the coroner said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. [Copyright 2023 NPR]