Investigators found the decaying remains of 190 bodies in “abhorrent” conditions inside the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, with bodies stacked on top of each other dating back to 2019, according to a federal arrest warrant filed this week.

Return to Nature owners Jon and Carie Hallford were arrested Wednesday in Wagoner, Oklahoma, on charges of abuse of a corpse, forgery, theft and money laundering, the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.

The Hallfords’ Colorado arrest affidavits are sealed, but a federal arrest warrant filed by a Denver FBI agent on Tuesday provides new details about what investigators found when they searched the funeral home in October after receiving complaints of “a horrific odor of decomposing bodies.”

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office was notified of the smell emanating from the building at 31 Werner Road in Penrose on Oct. 3, and the next day, a Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies investigator spoke with Jon Hallford about gaining access to the building that day.

Jon Hallford agreed to an inspection, stating he was using the building “to learn how to do taxidermy and he knew he had a problem there,” according to the arrest warrant.

But Jon Hallford did not meet DORA inspectors at the funeral home on Oct. 4, and that was the last time law enforcement heard from him.

Law enforcement recovered 190 bodies from inside the funeral home, 80 of whom are still unidentified.

“The conditions within the building were abhorrent; bodies were located stacked on top of each other and some were not in body bags,” the arrest warrant states. “Human decomposition fluids and insects lined the floors. Some of the bodies had dates of death in 2019, and the positive identification of all of the bodies has been difficult.”

All of the bodies that have been identified so far were reported to the state as having been cremated or buried, according to the affidavit.

Federal agents obtained warrants to track Jon and Carie Hallford’s cellphones and found that Jon Hallford stopped using his phone on Oct. 4. Carie Hallford’s cellphone was tracked to Wagoner, where it pinged a cellphone tower near Jon Hallford’s parents’ house. FBI agents surveilled the house and found a Volkswagon Tiguan registered to Jon Hallford parked outside his parents’ house on several occasions.

The federal warrant accuses Jon and Carie Hallford of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The couple faces 190 counts of abuse of a corpse in El Paso County District Court, according to the warrant.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kate Singh did not confirm the number of counts on Wednesday and said the DA’s office will review the investigation and then make a determination on the appropriate charges and counts.

Bail for Jon and Carie Hallford is set at $2 million.

“I am relieved that criminal charges have been brought against the funeral home owner and a criminal investigation is proceeding,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement after the arrests. “I know this will not bring peace to the families impacted by this heart-wrenching incident but we hope the individuals responsible are held fully accountable in a court of law.”

Of the 190 bodies found, authorities have identified 110 bodies through fingerprints, dental records and medical hardware. Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said during a Wednesday news conference that investigators will move on to using DNA to identify the remaining bodies.

The bodies of about 25 people have been released to loved ones, Keller said, and they have been in contact with about 137 families involved with the funeral home.

Jesse Elliot’s mother, Yong Anderson, was among the first bodies identified by investigators. Her remains have been returned to her family, Elliot said.

Anderson, who died in June at 76, had wanted a green burial after her death, and Elliot contacted Return to Nature because they specialized in natural burial services. Soon after Carie Hallford returned what she claimed was Anderson’s remains, Elliot grew suspicious because the ashes seemed much to heavy to be his 92-pound mother.

After the Hallford’s arrest on Wednesday, Elliot said he was appalled to learn about the conditions inside the funeral home but relieved that the couple had been arrested.

While he appreciates the hard work by investigators, Elliot said he wants accountability from state lawmakers as to how there is yet another horrific case involving a Colorado funeral home after the owners of Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose pleaded guilty in a nearly decade-long scheme to sell body parts.

“Colorado didn’t seem to learn after the Montrose situation, and now this,” he said.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen in the news conference declined to discuss why the Hallfords were in Oklahoma or what agency arrested them, but the Tulsa World reported Jon Hallford is from Oklahoma and previously worked as the funeral director at his family’s funeral home there.

Jon Hallford apparently worked at Foster-Petering Funeral Home in Muskogee, which does not appear to be in operation anymore, and a funeral home in Tulsa, according to online court records from a 2006 civil debt relief suit. Jon Hallford had wages garnished from both funeral homes, as well as from Walgreens and a health care services company.

His apprentice-level license with the Oklahoma Funeral Board expired in 2004 upon his graduation, according to the funeral board’s website. No license after that appears on the state’s website.

A man who answered the phone at the Muskogee County jail in Oklahoma confirmed Wednesday morning to The Denver Post that Jon Hallford is being held there but later said there was an FBI hold, so he couldn’t give any more information about him or if Carie Hallford was at the jail as well.

The Hallfords couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Neither has a listed personal phone number and the Penrose funeral home’s number no longer works, the Associated Press reported.

The funeral home had already been the subject of several legal troubles before the discovery of the bodies.

On Oct. 1, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office declared the business license delinquent for failure to file a routine reporting form; an El Paso County judge in June ruled Hallford and his company owed more than $21,000 to a funeral services company; and in 2019, a couple sued Hallford and his wife for failure to pay rent.

The Associated Press reported they were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills by a crematory that quit doing business with them almost a year ago, according to public records and interviews with people who worked with them.

The discovery also shined a spotlight on the state’s lax oversight of funeral homes and crematories. Colorado remains the only state in the country that doesn’t license funeral directors or require some certification.

State officials don’t regularly inspect funeral homes and only devote one-quarter of one full-time position to regulate 220 funeral homes and 77 crematories.

There’s no indication state regulators visited Penrose or contacted Hallford until more than 10 months after the Penrose funeral home’s registration expired in November 2022, according to AP.

Colorado lawmakers and the Colorado Funeral Directors Association said it’s long past time to close loopholes in Colorado’s regulatory framework.

Since the discovery of the bodies, a lawsuit has been filed against the Hallfords and Hallfordhomes LLC. A second lawsuit was filed Thursday, according to online court records.

Authorities in the case are asking anyone who has worked with the funeral home since September 2019 to use the FBI’s victim information form, bit.ly/47mjWmO, to contact them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.