The owner of a funeral home was arrested for privately hoarding 190 decomposed corpses

On August 5, 2024, a judge in Colorado, the United States, sentenced the couple to arrest. Their charges include corpse abuse, illegal trafficking of corpse organs, money laundering, theft, and forgery. At the same time, they were ordered to pay $950 million to the relatives of the victims.

On October 4, 2023, the police in Fremont County, Colorado, received a report from residents that a foul smell was emanating from the nearby "Return to Nature" funeral home. They suspected that there were dead and rotting animals inside. The police contacted the funeral home's director, Jon, who said he was making animal specimens and that an odor was inevitable. He promised to clean up that day. However, the police issued a search warrant before Jon dealt with it.

Unexpectedly, the police found no animal corpses in the funeral home but instead discovered a large number of disorganized and deeply decomposed corpses. The rooms were filled with putrefaction fluids and maggots. With further searching, 190 corpses were eventually found in this single-story funeral home. According to the initial autopsy ***ysis and the records on the body bags, the earliest time of death of these corpses can be traced back to 2019. That is to say, these 190 corpses have been piled up and rotting here for a full four years.

The funeral home is jointly operated by the couple Jon Holford and Kelly Holford. They founded this funeral company in 2017 under the slogan of "Comforting loved ones in the most natural way with the least impact on the environment" and offered two different prices and themes of funeral services: one is a biodegradable burial service without coffins and cemeteries, without any embalming treatment, and without any funeral supplies, directly buried in the ground, costing $1,895; the other is a burial service that uses the cremated ashes for tree planting, costing $1,290. In addition to the basic charges, it costs $485 for family members to accompany for 4 hours and $285 for a one-hour personal farewell ceremony.

However, the couple did not do as promised after collecting the money. They did not refrigerate the corpses but let them rot and forged ashes and death certificates. They charged the families of the deceased more than $130,000, claiming to provide cremation and burial services but never fulfilling the promise. In addition, they were also accused of misappropriating about $900,000 in COVID-19 relief funds for personal luxury consumption such as traveling, plastic surgery, and buying jewelry.

Christina Page is the mother of a victim. She entrusted her son's body to the funeral home for cremation in 2019 and then carried the so-called "ashes" to fulfill her son's last wishes. It wasn't until 2023 that she was shocked to learn that her son's body had been kept in the funeral home all along. As the identities of the bodies were confirmed, many families received similar bad news.

On November 9, 2023, the Holford couple underwent a court trial. They were suspected of four serious crimes including insulting corpses, money laundering using corpses, and forging official documents. After each paying a $2 million bond, they were still detained.

This case has drawn attention to the lack of supervision of the funeral industry in Colorado, prompting the state legislature to formulate comprehensive new regulations to rectify the funeral industry. Previously, the supervision of the funeral industry in Colorado was extremely lax. The new regulations require regulatory agencies to inspect funeral homes regularly and give them more law enforcement powers. At the same time, funeral home directors and other industry personnel are required to obtain operating licenses. The licensing conditions include background checks, obtaining a degree in funeral science, passing national exams, and having work experience.

Attorney Andrew Swan, who filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the victims, pointed out that the Holford couple did not admit their crimes and were absent from the hearing. Swan had hoped that they would appear in court to face the victims and explain their motives but was disappointed.