A funeral home owner in Colorado risks up to 20 years in prison after offering families fake ashes instead of the remains of the deceased.

A former owner of the Return to Nature funeral home in Colorado Springs, Carie Hallford, faces up to 20 years in prison after defrauding grieving families by providing them with urns containing fake ashes instead of the remains of deceased individuals. The 48-year-old woman admitted to collecting over $130,000 for funeral services and cremations that, in many cases, were never performed.

Investigators discovered nearly 200 decomposing bodies in a building managed by the family business, and prosecutors allege that she and her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, exploited grieving individuals and also defrauded federal funds granted during the pandemic.