Penrose funeral home co-owner where 190 bodies were improperly stored appears in Colorado court

One of the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose appeared in an El Paso County courtroom on Thursday. Jon Hallford appeared before a judge who reduced his bond from $2 million to $100,000.

Jon and Carie Hallford were arrested in November of last year in Oklahoma on several crimes, including abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery, which are all felonies. 

A judge reduced Jon Hallford's bail and set a continuance for the preliminary hearing on Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. If released from custody, he must surrender his passport and have no contact with the victims. During the hearing, the judge mentioned a GPS ankle monitor. 

Carie Hallford is scheduled to appear before a judge on Jan. 11. She remains in custody. 

The Fremont County Sheriff's Office began an investigation on Oct. 4, 2023 after neighbors reported an odor emanating from the Penrose facility located at 31 Werner Road. 

According to the affidavit for their arrests in Oklahoma, Jon Hallford told a Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies investigator that he was "using the building in Penrose to learn how to do taxidermy" and that he "knew he had a problem there." 

After the search warrant was issued, investigators found the 190 bodies inside the building and said the "conditions within the building were abhorrent" and that "bodies were located stacked on top of each other and some were not in body bags." The affidavit also goes on, "Human decomposition fluids and insects lined the floors" with some of the dates on the bodies listing death in 2019. 

All decedents were removed from the funeral home on Oct. 13, 2023 and transported to the El Paso County Coroner's Office.

Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said more than half of the individuals have been positively identified and work is ongoing to identify the rest. 

Additional Information from the Fremont County Sheriff's Office: 

Families who have not already done so are asked to go to https://forms.fbi.gov/penrose-funeral-home and complete the questionnaire to assist in this process.

If you believe you or your loved one might have been impacted and you have further questions, please send an email to penrosefuneralhome@fbi.gov. This is the most effective way to connect with resources; a person will respond to all emails from family members.