190 Bodies Abandoned Amid Stench: Colorado Funeral Home Scam Exposed

Promoted "Green Burial" Services to the Community
Handed Out Urns Filled with Concrete Powder, Pretending They Were Ashes
Used Clients' Money to Fund a Lavish Lifestyle

An astonishing incident occurred in Colorado, United States, where a funeral home failed to cremate or bury approximately 190 bodies and instead handed urns filled with concrete powder to bereaved families, claiming it was the remains of their loved ones. On August 5 (local time), the New York Post reported that a funeral home in the Denver area of Colorado was caught after perpetrating a fraud scheme against grieving families.

The 'Return to Nature' funeral home, which received money in exchange for providing funeral services but did not properly handle the bodies. AP

In 2023, a series of complaints from local residents about a strong stench coming from the vicinity of the funeral home led to an investigation, which uncovered the shocking details of the case. According to prosecutors, the Holford couple, who operated the funeral home, advertised “green burial” services on their website and elsewhere, collecting a total of $130,000 (about 180 million won) from victimized families. However, in reality, they abandoned the bodies. The funeral home did not cremate or bury the bodies, instead leaving them unattended and handing urns filled with concrete powder to the families as if they were the remains. There were also cases where bodies were buried in the wrong locations.

The couple used the money received from clients to purchase cryptocurrency and luxury jewelry, and to enjoy cosmetic treatments and a lavish lifestyle. Christina Page, who visited the funeral home in 2019 to have her deceased son’s remains cremated, told local media, “I was shocked to learn that my son’s body had been left in a refrigerator for four years,” adding, “They committed an act of extreme cruelty against us.”

Funeral Home Operators Ignore Lawsuit... Actual Payment of 1 Trillion Won in Damages Unlikely

Angry over their actions, the bereaved families filed a lawsuit against the Holford couple, the owners of the funeral home, and around July last year, the court ruled that they must pay more than 1 trillion won in damages to the victims’ families. As a result, each family participating in the class action was entitled to receive more than $7 million (about 963.2 million won) in compensation.

The Holford couple did not respond to the lawsuit at all, and the New York Post reported that due to years of severe financial difficulties, it is unlikely that the victims will actually receive the compensation. However, the Holford couple were arrested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation last year and have been indicted on fraud charges, so they are expected to face criminal punishment. Colorado, which previously had the most lenient regulations on funeral home operations in the United States, has since enacted stricter laws to regulate the industry in response to this case.