Booking pictures supplied by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff’s Office reveals Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford, homeowners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, a Colorado funeral house the place 190 decaying our bodies have been discovered.

Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office/AP

Booking pictures supplied by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff’s Office reveals Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford, homeowners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, a Colorado funeral house the place 190 decaying our bodies have been discovered.

Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office/AP

DENVER — Investigators who entered a Colorado funeral house the place practically 200 deserted our bodies have been discovered encountered stacks of partially coated human stays, bodily fluids a number of inches deep on the ground, and flies and maggots all through the constructing, an FBI agent testified Thursday.

Prosecutors additionally revealed textual content messages despatched between the funeral house’s homeowners exhibiting they have been underneath rising monetary pressures and had fears that they might be caught for mishandling the our bodies. As the our bodies collected, one of many co-owners even instructed eliminating them by digging an enormous gap and treating them with lye or setting them on hearth, in line with the texts.

Twenty-three of the our bodies had death dates from 2019 and 61 have been from 2020, FBI agent Andrew Cohen stated. The stays included adults, infants and fetuses. They have been being saved at room temperature in a uncared for constructing within the small Rocky Mountain city of Penrose, he stated.

“It looked like something you’d like to forget but can’t,” Cohen stated throughout a listening to for one of many funeral house’s co-owners.

Investigators additionally discovered animal stays and baggage of packaged concrete, Cohen stated. Some relations of the deceased acquired pretend ashes somewhat than the cremated stays of their family members, prosecutors have stated.

Police in November arrested funeral home owners Carie and Jon Hallford in Oklahoma after the married couple allegedly had fled Colorado to keep away from prosecution.

The our bodies have been found in early October after neighbors seen a putrid odor. The Penrose constructing had “makeshift” refrigeration models however Cohen stated these weren’t working when the our bodies have been discovered. Near the squat constructing was a publish workplace and some scattered houses, spaced out between dry grass and empty tons with parked semitrailers.

A hearse and van sit exterior the Return to Nature Funeral Home in October.

David Zalubowski/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

David Zalubowski/AP

A hearse and van sit exterior the Return to Nature Funeral Home in October.

David Zalubowski/AP

The Hallfords are accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering cash and forging paperwork over a number of years on the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which was primarily based in Colorado Springs and saved stays in close by Penrose. They are every charged with roughly 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, 5 counts of theft, 4 counts of cash laundering and over 50 counts of forgery.

Carie Hallford’s lawyer, Michael Stuzynski, didn’t instantly problem the proof from the scene that was introduced by prosecutors, besides to query cellular phone knowledge that prosecutors stated positioned Carie Hallford on the Penrose facility along with her husband. The protection can have one other probability to argue towards the proof throughout a listening to set for subsequent week.

Stuzynski stated after the listening to that he couldn’t speak in regards to the case exterior of courtroom.

Jon Hallford remained in custody on the El Paso County jail on Thursday after his bond was lowered from $2 million to $100,000 throughout a listening to final week. His lawyer, Adam Steigerwald, didn’t instantly return a phone message searching for remark.

Several households who employed Return to Nature to cremate their relations have advised The Associated Press that the FBI confirmed their stays were among the decaying bodies.

Jon Hallford was nervous way back to 2020 about getting caught, in line with prosecutors.

“My one and only focus is keeping us out of jail,” stated one textual content message he allegedly wrote.

Other texts included messages between the Hallfords about promoting off belongings to cowl their bills and worrying about “losing everything” in the event that they have been uncovered.

In a 2020 trade, Jon Hallford messaged his spouse that they wanted to start “restoring the building in Penrose” and appeared to counsel numerous methods to do away with the our bodies, in line with Kevin Clark, an investigator with the district lawyer’s workplace.

“Options: A, build a new machine ASAP. B, dig a big hole and use lye. Where? C, dig a small hole and build a large fire. Where? D, I go to prison, which is probably going to happen,” the message stated, in line with Clark. It was not clear what the “new machine” referred to.

In yet one more textual content, from final yr, Jon Hallford wrote about coping with decaying our bodies earlier than he seems to offer a dinner order.

“I want to take a shower as soon as I get back because while I was making the transfer, I got people juice on me. Want the double cheeseburger, lettuce, wrapped with everything minus tomatoes, please,” the textual content stated in line with Clark.

Further particulars on how the our bodies got here to be mishandled haven’t been publicly launched after protection attorneys objected to unsealing affidavits within the case.

The discovery of our bodies prompted an effort to determine them utilizing fingerprints, dental data, medical {hardware} and DNA. Officials plan in coming days to degree the constructing the place the our bodies have been discovered.

The our bodies recovered included that of a former Army sergeant first-class who was believed to have been buried at a veterans’ cemetery, Cohen stated.

Investigators exhumed the picket casket and located the stays of an individual of a unique gender inside, he stated. The veteran, who was not recognized in courtroom, was later given a funeral with full navy honors at Pikes Peak National Cemetery, he stated.

In December, relations who knew or feared their family members have been among the many deserted our bodies watched in particular person for the primary time because the Hallfords appeared earlier than a choose. One girl held up a photograph of her late son who she thought could have been among the many mishandled our bodies.

Several dozen units of stays haven’t but been recognized, in line with Cohen.

Return to Nature began in 2017 and provided cremations and “green” burials with out embalming fluids.

The AP beforehand reported that the Hallfords missed tax payments, have been evicted from considered one of their properties and have been sued for unpaid payments by a crematory that stop doing enterprise with them nearly a yr in the past, in line with public data and interviews with individuals who labored with them.