Victims of Return to Nature react to guilty plea
Nov 22, 2024
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Jon and Carie Hallford plead guilty on Friday, Nov. 22, to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse. The couple owned the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, where nearly 200 bodies were mistreated in alarming ways.
The plea was for the state charges filed against them. The couple pled guilty to the federal charges they were facing back in October.
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FOX21 was in the courtroom on Friday. We want to warn you that some of the details are disturbing.
It was a deeply emotional day. People inside the courtroom erupted into applause as Mrs. Hallford was placed in handcuffs and taken back into custody.
"It's very difficult for me to really know what to think and how to feel. Part of me wants this over and done with. I want to be able to move on, but at the same time, I know that I won't. Them being behind bars doesn't change anything for us today," said Chrystina Page, a mother of an identified victim.
Victims of the Hallfords found support in one another after the guilty pleas were accepted.
Although the judge still has to decide on the plea agreements, the district attorney says in the agreements, the possibility of probation was taken off the table.
"These are all the lowest level felony charges that we have in Colorado. These are all typically subject to the potential for probation. So the fact that we were able to get a guaranteed prison sentence out of these plea agreements is really important," said District Attorney Michael Allen.
People began crying as more details of the crimes were revealed in court on Friday. The prosecution said that bodies were stuffed into plastic totes, fully exposed, and stacked on top of each other along with other various states.
"There's a lot of information out there that has not been made public that I feel should be made public and can only be made public in that way through trial," said Page.
She says her son's body was dumped into the corner of a broken fridge by Jon Hallford. She's one of the victims who wanted the case to go to trial, so she and many others could get more answers.
"I want people to understand, that we continue to talk about 191 bodies that were located in Penrose, but there are 1,178 people who did business with Return to Nature between 2017 and 2023 when the bodies were discovered," said Page, "This is not just 191 people affected. Each one of those 191 bodies, had more than one person who loved them. We still have 987 people who have no answers through the discovery of a corpse."
Sentencing is currently set for April 18th, starting at 9 a.m. There will be an opportunity for those impacted by the Hallfords to speak.