A federal judge has sentenced a Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 decomposing bodies to 20 years in prison on federal fraud charges.

A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes received the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison on Friday, for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 aid.

Jon Hallford, owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court last year. Separately, Hallford pleaded guilty to 191 counts of corpse abuse in state court and will be sentenced in August.

At Friday’s hearing, federal prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence and Hallford’s attorney asked for 10 years. Judge Nina Wang said that although the case focused on a single fraud charge, the circumstances and scale of Hallford’s crime and the emotional damage to families warranted the longer sentence.

    • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      they are still useful for research, medical colleges, military so they can blow it up.

    • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
      8·
      3 days ago

      That’s only true if they’re going to be put in living people. There is a huge black market for person parts.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_morgue_case

      Lodge worked as the morgue manager under the Anatomical Gift Program at Harvard Medical School from 1995 until his firing on May 6, 2023.[3] The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania accused of him of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods. From roughly 2018 to 2022, Lodge allegedly delivered human remains by post to customers, who sometimes visited the morgue to choose their preferred body parts.[4] While selling services associated with the cost of procuring cadavers is not illegal in the United States, selling bodies or body parts is.