The arrest affidavits for the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose show some shocking details about the state of the facility. Jon and Carie Hallford were arrested Wednesday morning in Oklahoma for allegedly abusing a corpse, stealing, laundering money and forging, which are all felonies. The Hallfords are in custody on a $2 million cash bond after their arrest in Wagoner, in eastern Oklahoma. The couple is awaiting extradition to Colorado.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office started an investigation on Oct. 4 after neighbors complained about a smell coming from the Penrose facility at 31 Werner Road. The affidavit for their arrests in Oklahoma says Jon Hallford told an investigator from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies that he was “using the building in Penrose to learn taxidermy” and that he “knew he had a problem there.” Jon Hallford never appeared for the meeting with DORA and that was the final contact law enforcement had with him. After the search warrant was granted, investigators discovered 190 bodies inside the building and said the “conditions within the building were appalling” and that “bodies were piled on top of each other and some were not in body bags.” The affidavit also says, “Human decomposition fluids and insects covered the floors” with some of the dates on the bodies showing death in 2019.

The affidavit says the funeral home reported the identified bodies as cremated or buried to the state, according to investigators.

The affidavit also alleges that the couple escaped Colorado to dodge prosecution and Jon Hallford stopped using his cell phone. The Hallfords told their landlord that they would not fight the eviction from their Colorado Springs business that was the office for the Return to Nature Funeral Home and that they could not take their property and “the landlord could do whatever he wanted with it.” Investigators also discovered that the couple was not at their Colorado Springs home and that their toothbrushes were gone.

The funeral home’s decedents were taken out on Oct. 13 and moved to the El Paso County Coroner’s Office.

Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said 110 individuals have been confirmed and work is continuing to confirm 80 more.