EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — Carie Hallford, one of the co-owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, will return to court next week after failing to appear to a court ordered sobriety monitoring appointment.
Carie and her husband Jon are facing hundreds of charges related to the discovery of 190 bodies improperly stored at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose. Carie bonded out of the El Paso County Jail on February 27, a condition of her release is her continued sobriety monitoring.
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office confirms that she failed to appear and will now go before a judge on March 14 at 1:30 p.m.
Jon Hallford has been out on bond since January 29 and has reportedly continued to maintain his requirements for release.
Jon and Carie both face more than 250 felony counts, including abuse of a corpse, money laundering, forgery, and theft.
WATCH: CO-OWNER OF PENROSE FUNERAL HOME CONFRONTED IN COURT
The couple has arraignments scheduled for March 21.
BACKGROUND
Return to Nature Funeral Home came under a multi-agency investigation in October following reports of a complaint about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they found more than 180 bodies in various states of decomposition inside the building that were not properly stored. The two were arrested in Oklahoma in November of 2023.
In what was a multi-agency clean-up effort, coroner offices and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation worked tirelessly for a couple of weeks to remove the bodies from the building before the identification process could begin.
It was not until early November that the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home were arrested in Oklahoma. Jon and Carie Hallford were moved to El Paso County by late November where both appeared in court and had cash bonds set at $2 million.
Following their arrests, News5's Eleanor Sheahan spoke with families who were victims of the funeral home.
WATCH: VICTIMS OF RETURN TO NATURE SHARE WHAT OWNER'S ARRESTS MEAN TO THEM
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