The owners of a Colorado funeral home have been arrested on charges linked to the discovery of 190 sets of decaying remains at one of their facilities
FILE - A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., Oct. 5, 2023. A family filed a lawsuit Monday, Oct. 30, against the Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were found alleging that the owners, a husband and wife, allowed the remains of their loved ones and to “rot” away while they sent families fake ashes.
They couldn’t be reached for comment and didn’t have attorneys listed in jail records. Neither has a listed personal phone number, and the funeral home’s number no longer works. Allen and others described an ongoing process of identifying the remains using fingerprints, dental records, medical hardware and, if necessary, DNA. They have identified 110 of the 190 sets of remains and have returned 25 to those people's families.
Investigators are in contact with 137 families, and Allen asked for anyone who might have worked for or with the Hallfords or done business with the funeral home going back to September 2019 to come forward. He also asked relatives of the yet-unidentified dead to contact their late loved ones' dentists for records that might help the investigation.
Relatives of people whose remains were handled by the funeral home have feared that their loved ones weren't cremated and were instead among the remains that authorities found. They said death certificates indicated that the remains were cremated at one of two crematories, but both crematories“This was intentional," said Page, who started a private Facebook group for affected families.
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