Denver — A Colorado judge rejected a plea deal offered by a funeral home owner accused of concealing nearly as much 190 decomposed bodies in an insect-infested building on Monday after family members of the deceased said the deal’s sentence of 15 to 20 years was too lenient.
Carrie Halford and her husband John Halfordowned by Return to Nature Funeral Home, is accused of dumping bodies at a building in the rural town between 2019 and 2023, and giving families fake ashes and other items. Defrauding the federal government outside Nearly $900,000.
John and Carrie Halford both pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse last year, and State District Judge Eric Bentley has now rejected both plea deals after family members asked for a harsher sentence.
A judge’s rejection of a plea deal is highly unusual, and Carrie Halford can now either withdraw her guilty plea or continue without the deal, meaning she could get a higher sentence.
John Halford has withdrawn his guilty plea and is scheduled to stand trial.
After the bodies were discovered, the families learned that their relatives’ remains were not in the urn or ashes they had ceremoniously scattered, but were instead lying with approximately 190 other bodies. Some said they had nightmares about what their loved ones looked like in that building; Others wondered about the spirits of their relatives.