The couple accused of dumping the bodies spent the cremation money on cars

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DENVER – Two Colorado funeral home owners accused of dumping nearly 200 bodies took payments from families for cremations and funerals in exchange for cars, cryptocurrency, $1,500 dinners in Las Vegas and other personal items, prosecutors and an FBI agent said. on Thursday.

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In a courtroom packed with families of the deceased, FBI agent Andrew Cohen detailed that John and Carey Hallford used the families' payments to double the cost of cremation costs for two vehicles — a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti — to the tune of more than $120,000. All the bodies were found last October in the warehouse of his business in Penrose, Colorado.

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John Hallford, wearing a black jacket, tie and glasses, sat at the defense table and looked forward as Cohen's witness. He showed no reaction.

Some of the bodies had been in the worm-infested building for years before they were found after reports of a stench emanating from the small mountain town. Families who hired Back to Nature to cremate their loved ones told The Associated Press that the FBI confirmed their remains were among the decomposing bodies.

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Testimony about the Hallfords' spending practices came during a hearing in which a judge presented prosecutors with enough evidence to bring John Hallford to trial on criminal charges. The judge previously ruled that Carey Holford will also stand trial.

The couple was arrested in Oklahoma in November. None of them have applied yet. Since the bodies were found, investigators have been collecting evidence.

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John Hallford's attorney, Adam Steigerwald, argued that the prosecution had not shown that the money in the couple's business account was used to hide the source of the funds, meaning it was not money laundering. He also said the Yukon was purchased with money the couple received from the federal Small Business Administration.

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But according to Cohen, the money to fix the Hallfords' pandemic-era small business loan was fraudulently obtained after the Hallfords lied about not being behind on child support payments.

The couple, who own Back to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, are each charged with 190 counts of embezzlement, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and more than 50 counts of forgery. In addition to the funeral home, prosecutors said, they used a building in the nearby rural community of Penrose as a place to store the body.

Angelica Steadman hired the house to cremate her 24-year-old daughter and still doesn't know exactly what happened to her body. His daughter is still not among those whose remains have been identified at the Penrose facility.

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“If they had done what they were supposed to do, they still would have made a lot of money,” he said after hearing the testimony.

At the hearing before Carey Hallford, prosecutors presented text messages that she and her husband tried to hide their financial problems by leaving the bodies at the Penrose site. They did not elaborate. The building had temporary refrigeration units that were not working when the bodies were found, Cohen testified.

Prosecutors said John Hallford, fearing he would be caught in 2020, offered to dispose of the bodies by dumping them in a large pit and then lyeing or burning them.

“My only goal is to get us out of jail,” he wrote prosecutors in one text message.

John Hallford was released from the El Paso County Jail in late January after posting a $100,000 bond. Carey Halford remained jailed Thursday on $100,000 bond.

— Matthew Brown contributed to this report from Billings, Montana.

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