"It was 4 February 2024, and Johnson was teaching an eighth-grade gym class. Are you the son of Ellen Lopes? a woman asked, Johnson recalled in an interview with the Associated Press. There had been an incident, and an FBI agent would fly out to explain, the caller said. Then she asked: Did you use Return to Nature for a funeral home? You should probably Google them, she added."
"In the clatter of the weight room, Johnson typed Return to Nature into his cellphone. Dozens of news reports appeared, details popping out in a blur. Hundreds of bodies stacked on top of each other. Inches of body-decomposition fluid. Swarms of bugs. Investigators traumatized. Governor declares state of emergency. Johnson felt nauseated and his chest constricted, forcing the breath from his lungs. He pushed himself out of the building as another teacher heard his cries and came running."
"Two FBI agents visited Johnson the following week, confirming his mother's body was among 189 that Return to Nature's owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, had stashed in a Colorado building between 2019 and 4 October 2023, when the bodies were found. It was one of the largest discoveries of decaying bodies at a funeral home in the US. Lawmakers overhauled the state's lax funeral home regulations."
Derrick Johnson buried his mother's ashes on Maui and later learned from the FBI that her body was among 189 corpses stored by Return to Nature owners Jon and Carie Hallford in a Colorado building between 2019 and October 4, 2023. Authorities found bodies stacked with inches of decomposition fluid, infestations, and traumatized investigators. The Hallfords admitted to handing families fake ashes, defrauding nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era relief, and diverting client cremation payments to luxury purchases. They were arrested in Oklahoma in November 2023 and charged with abusing nearly 200 corpses, prompting a state emergency declaration and regulatory overhaul.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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