The legal and financial troubles piled up in recent months at the Colorado funeral home where authorities last week discovered at least 115 decomposing bodies. But the troubles went unnoticed by state officials who have long struggled to effectively oversee the industry.
The remains of some of the 115 decomposing bodies discovered at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., arrive at the El Paso County Coroner’s Office in Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. Temporary structures and refrigerated trucks filled a parking lot next to the office where they will be beginning the massive task of trying to identify the remains. Privacy fences are set up on the perimeter of the Return to Nature Funeral Home on Monday, Oct.
Efforts to identify the remains began this week with help from an FBI team that gets deployed to mass casualty events like airline crashes. Details on what they’ve found haven’t been released. Fremont Sheriff Allen Cooper last week described the scene as “horrific.” The order also alleged Hallford tried to conceal the improper storage of corpses. That document and a second Oct. 5 notice for Hallford to cease and desist operating the Penrose site are the only known correspondence sent by state officials to Return to Nature, from the time it lost its registration to the discovery of the bodies.Attempts to reach the Hallfords have been unsuccessful. Numerous text messages to the funeral home seeking comment went unanswered.
Return to Nature insisted, asking for half payments. A week before law enforcement raided the funeral home it sent her a $1,411 invoice. Her husband’s ashes never arrived and she can’t help but think his body is among the 115 law enforcement is trying to identify. Oftentimes “there’s just not the resources or the manpower to be able to provide inspectors to go out and do regular inspections,” said Farmer with the funeral director’s association.
Kenney said the Hallfords put him off by saying they were waiting to be paid for services they performed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the coronavirus pandemic. FEMA officials did not immediately respond to questions about the company.
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