Judge delays case against Colorado funeral home owners accused of 190 counts of corpse abuse

By JESSE BEDAYN
Associated Press/Report for America

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado judge has granted a defense request to delay the criminal case of two Colorado funeral home operators accused of letting nearly 200 corpses decay in a decrepit building in some cases for years. The delay Thursday angered some families of the deceased who are eager to have the case resolved. Jon and Carie Hallford are accused of falsifying death certificates and sending fake ashes to grieving families. Investigators say some of the 190 bodies languished for years in a building southwest of Denver that had swarms of bugs and floors coated with decomposition fluids. It’s one of several cases to roil Colorado’s largely unregulated funeral industry.