Furious families have filed suit against a Colorado funeral home after it allegedly sent them fake ashes of relatives while leaving bodies to rot.
The suit comes weeks after a mind-boggling 189 corpses were discovered at the ‘Return to Nature’ facility this past month – after a neighbor reported an ‘abhorrent smell’ coming from the building some 100 miles south of Denver.
Law enforcement officials have started identifying the decaying remains – some of which, forensics has revealed, were left years after they were allegedly cremated and supposedly sent out as ashes to grieving relatives.
Several have since been notified that their loved ones were among the bodies – spurring the new class-action suit that names owners Jon and Carie Hallford as plaintiffs.
Among those to receive the news was Abby Swoveland, who says she believes the home gave her cement dust instead of her mother’s ashes. Richard Law, whose dad died of COVID three years ago, also learned his relative was among the bodies.
Scroll down for video:
Families have filed suit against Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado, after owners Jon Hallford and wife Carrie allegedly sent families fake ashes while leaving bodies to rot
Feds descended on the facility – located about 100 miles south of Denver – on October 4 after receiving reports of a foul odor coming from the home. Crews afterwards were filmed removing bodies – and have now begun to notify families
Among those to receive the news was Abby Swoveland who is seen sitting with what the funeral home owners said were her mother Sara Lee Swoveland’s ashes
Swoveland said she strongly believes the Penrose facility gave her cement dust instead of her mother Sara Lee Swoveland’s ashes.
‘I am completely convinced what I have is actually a bag of powdered cement,’ she said in a video interview with AP. ‘They’re not ashes.’
Producing a bag of the material that has yet to be tested, she showed her mom’s death certificate and a series of photos of them during happier times.
Feds notified her late last month that her mom was among the nearly 200 found at the home on October 4 – some of whom families have revealed had been dead for years.
As of Wednesday, it remains unclear when Swoveland’s relative died.
That’s not the case with Law, who says he paid more than $1300 to cremate his father after his COVID-related death in November 2020.
Receipts show how he was also charged an additional $85 as a so-called COVID upcharge to ensure the remains were safely handled.
Instead, on October 19, nearly three years after he thought his father was put to rest, he received a call from the FBI that notified him how he was found in the funeral home.
Richard said of his late father Roger: ‘For nearly three years, Return to Nature Funeral Home and the Hallfords allowed my father to rot along with nearly 200 others,’ he said.
Swoveland showed a series of photos of her and her mother during happier times
She believes a bag of ‘ashes’ sent to her by Return to Nature Funeral Home was actually cement
Swoveland showed her mom’s death certificate but it remains unclear when she died
Richard Law’s (center) dad Roger (left), who died of COVID three years ago, was among the nearly 200 bodies
Richard said of his late father Roger: ‘For nearly three years, Return to Nature Funeral Home and the Hallfords allowed my father to rot along with nearly 200 others’
An attorney representing families notes in a statement: ‘Even as bodies were piling up inside the funeral home, [Jon and Carie Hallford] continued to assume custody of more and more bodies.
‘In death, these men and women deserved to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead, they were defiled,’ Lawyer Andrew Swan added.
A mass of reports emerged earlier this month that the funeral home appeared to have fabricated cremation records and may have given families fake ashes.
The first to file suit, Law sent his father’s remains to Return to Nature in 2020.
As was the case with the Swovelands, the funeral home claimed to cremate his father, and sent the younger Law what appeared to be ashes.
Like Swoveland, Law has not said whether he has had the remains tested.
Law was quoted in a press release saying that he was ‘honored to stand up on behalf’ of his father and the other 188 victims.
Tanya Wilson also believes her mother’s ashes she spread in Hawaii in August were fake
‘My mom’s last wish was for her remains to be scattered in a place she loved, not rotting away in a building,’ she said last week.
‘Any peace that we had, thinking that we honored her wishes, you know, was just completely ripped away from us.’
The FBI last month dispatched crews to the funeral home as part of the investigation. An attorney representing families notes in a statement: ‘Even as bodies were piling up inside the funeral home, [Jon and Carie Hallford] continued to assume custody of more and more bodies
‘In death, these men and women deserved to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead, they were defiled,’ Lawyer Andrew Swan added
As for Halford, a licensed funeral director, he opened the family-run funeral home in 2017, at the time billing it as a green-friendly business. Neither he or his wife have been charged.
The El Paso County Coroner’s Office, the agency tasked with analyzing the mass of cadavers, said last week that most of the bodies have been identified – while an unspecified amount still remain up in the air.
All decedents were removed from the funeral home on October 13 and transported to the coroner for analysis – and more families can still come forward to join the lawsuit.
As for Halford, a licensed funeral director, he opened the family-run funeral home in 2017, at the time billing it as a green-friendly business. Neither he or his wife have been charged.
Calls and texts sent to numbers listed for Return to Nature and owners have gone unanswered since the discovery of the decaying bodies.
No arrests have been made.