Several families who sent loved ones to a Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were discovered fear they were given fake ashes
Photos of Sara Lee Swoveland, center in the left image, and her family are seen in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. Her daughter, Abby Hoveland, says she believes the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., gave her cement dust instead of her mother's ashes.
Calls and texts sent to numbers listed for Return to Nature and owners Jon and Carie Hallford have gone unanswered since the discovery of the decaying bodies. No arrests have been made. Law enforcement officials have said Return to Nature’s owners were cooperating as investigators sought to determine any criminal wrongdoing.
None of the families the AP interviewed received an identification tag or certificate that experts say are usually given to ensure cremations are authentic. Members of all four families described a similar consistency of the ashes that seemed like dry concrete. Two mixed some ashes with water and said they solidified.
“Jesse, of course this is your mother,” Elliott recalled Hallford telling him after she handed him a June death certificate that said Wilbert handled the cremation. “I was kind of getting to a place where I wasn’t losing it every day,” she said, and now,"I don’t know where my husband is." Authorities could be waiting to bring charges until they determine if there are any more improperly stored bodies, said Ian Farrell, a criminal law expert at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
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