Heather DeWolf, seen in inset, demanding that Jon Hallford reveal her dead son’s whereabouts. (Mug shots of Hallford and wife Carie Hallford: Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office; screenshot: KKTV)
A mother called out the Colorado funeral home owner who she says gave her fake ashes instead of her dead son’s remains, and who allegedly harbored 189 rotting bodies at his funeral home.
“What did you do with my son?” Heather DeWolf demanded of Jon Hallford after his hearing Thursday, as seen on footage from Colorado Springs CBS affiliate KKTV. “This is my son. What did you do with him? Where is he? Where is my baby?”
Hallford and his wife, Carie Lee Hallford, allegedly dumped 189 bodies at a facility for their funeral home, Return to Nature, and gave families fake ashes of people that the couple claimed to have cremated. The 190th body was a female victim buried in a male Vietnam War veteran’s gave.
District Attorney Michael Allen said Thursday that they have yet to identify 22 of the bodies, according to KKTV.
DeWolf’s son, Zach, died in 2020 at 33, according to an Associated Press report from Dec. 6, 2023. She reportedly said the funeral home gave her a container that were supposed to have her son’s ashes. It did not. She described rocking the container, thinking it contained her son.
“I had not rocked with him since he was a child. And I could put my arms around him and just hold him,” DeWolf said, tearing up. “And now, looking back, I don’t know if I was rocking my son or rocking concrete.”
She voiced outrage on Thursday that Hallford did not answer her pleas for Zach’s whereabouts.
“When he wasn’t answering, it just — I got angrier and angrier,” she said. “I deserve an answer. We all deserve answers.”
According to a previously reported lawsuit from one of the families, authorities discovered the bodies after locals in Penrose, Colorado, complained about an awful smell emerging from the nearby property. Jon Hallford allegedly tried to pass it off as the result of his taxidermy hobby. The newly unsealed arrest affidavit, however, said authorities discovered almost 200 bodies, many stacked on top of each other or lying on the floor.
Interior and exterior footage from Sept. 9, 2023, allegedly showed that Jon Hallford needed a gurney to bring bodies into the building, according to documents.
“Hallford flipped the deceased body off the gurney onto the floor using a sheet that was beneath the body,” authorities wrote. “After the body had been dumped on the floor, Hallford appeared to wipe the remaining decomposition from the gurney onto other bodies in the room.”
According to documents, most of the 190 victim bodies were supposed to have been cremated.
“Return to Nature reported to the State of Colorado that bodies within their possession were properly disposed of,” authorities wrote. “Instead of cremating or burying bodies as reported, approximately 189 bodies were left to rot at room temperature for an unknown length of time, but at least between September 9, 2023 and October 4, 2023, by Jon and Carie Hallford in a building they owned located at 31 Werner Rd, Penrose, CO.”
When authorities executed a search warrant Oct. 5, 2023, they found some bodies without any covering, or just partial covering at best, they said.
“Some bodies were on gurneys, and some were just laying on the floor or stacked on top of other bodies,” they said.
Stacks of bodies blocked off certain parts of the building, authorities said. The caption of a redacted picture noted approximately 40 bodies stacked on stop of each other and in plastic totes within one room.
“Investigators also located personal artifacts, presumably given to Return to Nature by family members with the intention of the artifacts being buried or placed with the remains,” they wrote.
Fluids from decomposition covered the floors. Maggots, flies, and other insects infested the building, in some areas covering the floor and being on the bodies, authorities said.
“In many of the clear plastic bags, decomposition fluid had filled the bags and/or caused the bags to break subsequently spilling human decomposition on the floor,” they wrote. “Five gallon red and orange plastic buckets from Harbor Freight and Home Depot were in the building. In some instances, the buckets were placed below the bodies to collect the leaking decomposition fluid. The condition of the floors presented a slip hazard for the team that ultimately removed the bodies.”
The couple nonetheless collected money from victims’ families, insurance companies, the state of Colorado, and others, authorities said. They allegedly laundered income by making personal purchases, such as automobile purchases, according to documents.
They are charged with 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, 61 counts of forgery, five counts of theft, and four counts of money laundering.
A hearing for the couple is scheduled for March 21. Jon Hallford is out on bond. Carie Hallford remains at the El Paso County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
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