The awful smell seeped from a neglected building in a small Colorado town for days, followed by a report that made police take a closer look at the “green” funeral operator’s storage facility. Inside, they made a gruesome discovery: at least 115 decaying bodies.
Investigators were tight-lipped on Friday about exactly what they found inside the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, but their plans to bring in teams that usually deal with airline crashes, coroners from nearby jurisdictions and the FBI pointed to a grim mess.
A state document alleged that funeral home owner Jon Hallford tried to conceal the improper storage of corpses.
Photo: AP
He said he was doing taxidermy at the facility, according to the state suspension letter dated on Thursday.
Hallford acknowledged that he had a “problem” at the property, the Colorado Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration letter said.
The document did not elaborate on the taxidermy and alleged improper storage of remains, but the facility’s registration has been expired since November last year.
No one had been arrested or charged.
Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper the scene inside the building “horrific.”
On Friday, a sour, rotten stench still came from the back of the building, where windows were broken.
Some identification would require taking fingerprints, finding medical or dental records, and DNA testing in a process that could take several months, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said.
Families would be notified as soon as possible after body identification, he added.
As the news broke, Mary Simons, 47, said she could not help but wonder if her husband was inside the building.
She said she hired Return to Nature Funeral Home to cremate her husband, Darrell Simons, after he died of pneumonia from lung cancer, but the ashes never arrived.
She had finally begun to turn the corner of grieving, she said.
“Suddenly it’s like: ‘Oh my God,’ I’ve lost him all over again,” Mary Simons said through tears. “It’s like the grieving process is starting all over again.”
Police told Simons the process of finding out whether her husband’s body was in the building would be slow, she said.
The FBI was bringing in teams with additional training and specialized equipment that process “scenes of national magnitude,” such as major airline disasters, Denver-based FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said.
The bodies were inside a 230m2 building with the appearance and dimensions of a standard one-story home.
The facility performed burials without embalming chemicals or metal caskets, using biodegradable caskets, shrouds or “nothing at all,” its Web site says.
The company charged US$1,895 for a “natural burial,” not counting a casket or cemetery space, and until July offered cremations, too.
Deputies were called in on Tuesday night in reference to a suspicious incident that officials have not yet described. Fremont County Sheriff’s Office investigators returned the next day with a search warrant and found the remains.
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS