Jesse Elliot knew his mother wanted a green burial after her death.
A Buddhist and environmentalist, Yong Anderson, who died in June at 76, requested her ashes be spread on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu, where she lived for many years.
So Elliot turned to the Return to Nature Funeral Home, a Colorado Springs-based facility specializing in natural burial services.
He immediately had suspicions. The owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, would never let him stop by the funeral home, Elliot said. When they dropped off his mother’s ashes, the former service member said they felt far too heavy to be his 92-pound mom.
Anderson’s death certificate said Return to Nature had used Wilbert Funeral Services for the cremation. But on Friday, after authorities found at least 115 improperly stored bodies at the funeral home’s Penrose location, Elliot wanted to check on this arrangement.
“I’m sorry, we did not handle your mother’s remains,” Elliot said a Wilbert employee told him.
Elliot’s story raises questions about how many other families who turned to Return to Nature during times of grief received the services they were promised.
The FBI and local law enforcement last week announced parallel investigations to determine whether criminal charges are warranted as authorities work to identify the bodies. No arrests have been made.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the state’s funeral homes and crematories, last week suspended the funeral home’s Colorado Springs license. The Penrose location, state regulators found, had been operating since November without a license.
The magnitude of the investigation prompted the state to activate the Emergency Operations Center to assist with hazardous materials, food and security for workers, and personal protective equipment.
The gruesome details emerging from Penrose have exposed Colorado’s loose regulatory framework around the mortuary industry, which regulates businesses, not people. More stringent laws could be coming this legislative session.
The Hallfords have not responded to requests for comment since authorities raided their business.
“Those don’t look like human remains”
Elliot, of Woodland Park, said the couple grew defensive when he and his family started questioning his mother’s cremation process.
When Carie Hallford dropped off the box with her supposed cremains, “she had this huge smile,” Elliot said.
“Of course this is your mother,” he said Carie told him.
But the envelope and box Elliot received contained no metal tags, normally used to track the deceased through cremation. Also missing: a certificate for cremation.
Despite these reservations, the grieving family flew in August to scatter Anderson’s remains around Diamond Head, the famous volcanic cone outside Honolulu.
Elliot’s brother-in-law, who also served in the military, quietly leaned over as they sprinkled the ashes.
“Jesse,” he said. “Those don’t look like human remains.”
Elliot’s heart dropped.
His sister took some of the remains to a funeral home in Georgia, he said. Without doing a forensic test, the operator said the cremains were more than likely not human.
A lawyer for Wilbert Funeral Services, the crematory listed on Anderson’s death certificate, told The Denver Post on Tuesday that the company stopped working with Return to Nature in November — seven months before Anderson’s death.
“We did not perform any cremations for them after that,” said Lisa Epps, the company’s general counsel.
In March, Wilbert sued Return to Nature and its owners, saying they owed more than $18,000, court records show. An El Paso County judge in June entered a judgment against the couple for the sum plus interest.
Law enforcement told Elliot to hold onto the ashes as the investigation continues.
“I want my mother’s remains back,” he said, “so we can do this all over again to put her to rest.”
Closing regulatory loopholes
The Return to Nature case comes amid a slow revamping of Colorado’s regulatory framework for funeral homes and crematories.
A 2018 investigation by The Post found the state’s oversight of these businesses to be among the laxest in the nation.
Colorado is the only state that does not license funeral workers. Instead, the state regulates the businesses themselves.
The Department of Regulatory Agencies last week suspended Return to Nature’s Colorado Springs license and issued a cease-and-desist to its Penrose location for operating without a license. Neither business was licensed to perform cremations.
But Colorado law allows Return to Nature’s owners to open another funeral home if they wish, pending any criminal investigation or separate state action. And state regulators have no authority to inspect an unlicensed business without law enforcement’s involvement.
State lawmakers have taken some steps in recent years to close loopholes in the statute.
The licensing structure for funeral homes and crematories began in 2019, following the grisly Sunset Mesa case in Montrose. The owners of that company were arrested and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with illegally selling body parts around the world without families’ consent.
The operators, Megan Hess and Shirley Koch, were sentenced in January to 20 and 15 years in federal prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.
In the aftermath of the FBI’s raid on that Western Slope funeral home, legislators passed a bill outlawing the simultaneous ownership of funeral homes, crematories and body broker businesses.
The governor in 2020 signed a bill making abuse of a corpse a felony offense.
Last session, lawmakers passed HB22-1073, which allows the Department of Regulatory Agencies to inspect licensed funeral homes and crematories if the agency receives a complaint about the business. The law came in response to charges levied against the Lake County coroner, who in February received six months of jail time for unlawful cremation.
Before the law, the department had no authority to inspect these businesses without the consent of an owner.
