A Colorado funeral home owner, Jon Hallford, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud after storing nearly 190 bodies in a decaying building and sending families fake ashes.

He and his wife ran the Return to Nature Funeral Home, hiding the remains between 2019 and 2023 while spending nearly $900,000 in COVID aid on luxury items.

Families described profound trauma on learning their loved ones weren’t cremated, NPR has reported.

Hallford also faces state sentencing for 191 counts of corpse abuse in August, while his wife awaits trial on related charges.

Written by B.C. Begley