In the USA, the owner of a funeral home was sentenced to 18 years for giving out fake ashes.

Carey Hallford, the owner of the Return to Nature funeral home, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for fraud with the remains of the deceased. This was reported by CNN.

"The former owner of a funeral home in Colorado, who helped hide almost 200 decomposing bodies in the building, was sentenced to 18 years on federal charges of fraud — almost the maximum term allowed by law," the March 16 article says.

The court found that Hallford, along with her ex-husband John, received money from relatives for cremation and burial, but the services were not actually provided. Instead, the bodies were stored in the morgue building in a decomposing state.

According to the investigation, in order to conceal the crime, the bureau's owners handed over urns with cement mixture to customers, passing it off as ashes. In addition, the couple misappropriated about $900,000 from the government's small business support program that operated during the pandemic. These funds were spent on luxury goods, including boutique shopping, cars, and beauty treatments.

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In August 2025, it was reported that Hallford had been storing almost 200 human bodies in improper conditions for several years and handing over dry concrete to the relatives of the victims. Then the woman pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud.

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