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Stacked Bodies and maggots discovered at neglected Colorado funeral home, FBI agent says
Investigators who entered a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200 abandoned bodies were found encountered stacks of partially covered human remains, bodily fluids several inches deep on the floor and flies and maggots throughout the building, an FBI agent testified Thursday.
Prosecutors also revealed text messages sent between the funeral home’s owners showing they were under growing financial pressures and had fears that they would be caught for mishandling the bodies. As the bodies accumulated, one of the co-owners even suggested getting rid of them by digging a big hole and treating them with lye or setting them on fire, according to the texts.
Twenty-three of the bodies had death dates from 2019 and 61 were from 2020, FBI agent Andrew Cohen said. The remains included adults, infants and fetuses. They were being stored at room temperature in a neglected building in the small Rocky Mountain town of Penrose, he said.
“It looked like something you’d like to forget but can’t,” Cohen said during a hearing for one of the funeral home’s co-owners.
Investigators also found animal remains and bags of packaged concrete, Cohen said. Some relatives of the deceased received fake ashes rather than the cremated remains of their loved ones, prosecutors have said.
Probe’s origins
Police in November arrested funeral home owners Carie and Jon Hallford in Oklahoma after the married couple allegedly had fled Colorado to avoid prosecution.
The bodies were discovered in early October after neighbors noticed a putrid smell. The Penrose building had “makeshift” refrigeration units but Cohen said they were not operating when the bodies were found. Near the squat building were a post office and a few scattered homes, spaced out between dry grass and empty lots with parked semitrailers.
The Hallfords are accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering money and forging documents over several years at the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which was based in Colorado Springs and stored remains in nearby Penrose. They are each charged with approximately 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and over 50 counts of forgery.
Carie Hallford’s attorney, Michael Stuzynski, did not immediately challenge the evidence from the scene that was presented by prosecutors, except to question cell phone data that prosecutors said placed Carie Hallford at the Penrose facility with her husband. The defense will have another chance to argue against the evidence during a hearing set for next week.
Stuzynski said after the hearing that he could not talk about the case outside of court.
Jon Hallford remained in custody at the El Paso County jail on Thursday after his bond was lowered from $2 million to $100,000 during a hearing last week. His attorney, Adam Steigerwald, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Several families who hired Return to Nature to cremate their relatives have told The Associated Press that the FBI confirmed their remains were among the decaying bodies.
Fear of being discovered
Jon Hallford was worried as far back as 2020 about getting caught, according to prosecutors.
“My one and only focus is keeping us out of jail,” said one text message he allegedly wrote.
Other texts included messages between the Hallfords about selling off assets to cover their expenses and worrying about “losing everything” if they were exposed.
In a 2020 exchange, Jon Hallford messaged his wife that they needed to begin “restoring the building in Penrose” and appeared to suggest various ways to get rid of the bodies, according to Kevin Clark, an investigator with the district attorney’s office.
“Options: A, build a new machine ASAP. B, dig a big hole and use lye. Where? C, dig a small hole and build a large fire. Where? D, I go to prison, which is probably going to happen,” the message said, according to Clark. It was not clear what the “new machine” referred to.
In yet another text, from last year, Jon Hallford wrote about dealing with decaying bodies before he appears to give a dinner order.
“I want to take a shower as soon as I get back because while I was making the transfer, I got people juice on me. Want the double cheeseburger, lettuce, wrapped with everything minus tomatoes, please,” the text said according to Clark.
Further details on how the bodies came to be mishandled have not been publicly released after defense attorneys objected to unsealing affidavits in the case.
Victims’ names come to light
The discovery of bodies prompted an effort to identify them using fingerprints, dental records, medical hardware and DNA. Officials plan in coming days to level the building where the bodies were found.
The bodies recovered included that of a former Army sergeant first class who was believed to have been buried at a veterans’ cemetery, Cohen said.
Investigators exhumed the wooden casket and found the remains of a person of a different gender inside, he said. The veteran, who was not identified in court, was later given a funeral with full military honors at Pikes Peak National Cemetery, he said.
In December, relatives who knew or feared their loved ones were among the abandoned bodies watched in person for the first time as the Hallfords appeared before a judge. One woman held up a photo of her late son who she thought may have been among the mishandled bodies.
Several dozen sets of remains have not yet been identified, according to Cohen.
Return to Nature started in 2017 and offered cremations and “green” burials without embalming fluids.
The AP previously reported that the Hallfords missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills by a crematory that quit doing business with them almost a year ago, according to public records and interviews with people who worked with them.
Boeing announced plans to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion in an all-stock transaction. Spirit is part of the aerospace giant’s supply chain.
Boeing, located in Arlington, Virginia, announced the purchase in a statement early Monday. Spirit is headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.
At about the same time, European aerospace giant Airbus said it had entered into an agreement to buy “major activities related to Airbus” from Spirit.
Under intentions laid out in the announcements, Boeing would take over most of Spirit’s operations.
Spirit builds fuselages and other significant parts for both Boeing and Airbus.
The Airbus agreement is set to commence when Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is completed, the two U.S. companies said.
The Boeing acquisition’s equity value of $4.7 billion is $37.25 per share, while the total value of the deal is around $8.3 billion, which includes Spirit’s last reported net debt, Boeing said.
Airbus said it would “be compensated by payment of $559 million” from Spirit “for a nominal consideration of $1.00, subject to adjustments including based on the final transaction perimeter.”
Boeing on why it’s making the move
Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in the company’s statement that, “We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly.”
Boeing previously owned Spirit, and Boeing said bringing the supplier back into the Boeing fold would improve plane quality and safety, which have come under increasing scrutiny by regulators, Congress and airlines.
“By reintegrating Spirit, we can fully align our commercial production systems, including our Safety and Quality Management Systems, and our workforce to the same priorities, incentives and outcomes – centered on safety and quality,” Calhoun said.
The purchase of Spirit would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s.
Concerns about safety came to a head after the Jan. 5 blowout of a panel on an Alaska 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon after announced increased oversight of Boeing and Spirit.
Plea deal for Boeing?
Separately, the Justice Department on Sunday presented Boeing with a plea deal after it accused Boeing of violating the terms of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that was put in place following two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The department told Boeing it could plead guilty or go to trial, people familiar with the talks confirmed to CBS News. The agreement would have the company plead guilty to the conspiracy charge it originally faced in 2021. In exchange, Boeing would pay a fine and enter a three-year probationary period, the people said.
The DOJ outlined the deal in a presentation to family members of the 737 Max crash victims earlier Sunday before presenting it to Boeing.
News of the plea deal was first reported by Reuters.
If Boeing agrees, a judge would have to sign off on the accord.
But Paul Cassell, an attorney who represents 15 of the victims’ families, told CBS News the proposal was “another sweetheart plea deal” and said the families will “strenuously object” to the deal.
Titanium parts a concern
On another safety front, the FAA said in June it is investigating how titanium parts that were sold with falsified quality documentation were used in the construction of Boeing and Airbus passenger jets in recent years.
Boeing and Airbus said the planes with the falsely documented parts are safe to fly, but Boeing said it would remove affected parts from planes that had not yet shipped to airline customers.
Americans have a specific dollar figure in mind for what it would take to financially secure, according to a new survey from Bankrate. That magic number? $186,000 in annual income.
Currently, only 6% of U.S. adults make that amount or more, Bankrate said. The median family income falls between $51,500 and $86,000, according to the latest federal data.
Attaining a sense of financial security means paying all of one’s bills as well as purchasing some wants, while having enough left over to save for the future, the personal finance site said. However, many inflation-weary consumers are experiencing increased financial stress, with a new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey finding that 35% of Americans are worried about making ends meet, up from 29% a year earlier.
That gap between what the typical American makes now and what they aspire to earn means “Americans have their eyes set on this high income, and they think they need to make more money even if they know it’s unrealistic they’ll never make that amount,” Sarah Foster, an analyst at Bankrate, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Earning more remains at the top of many Americans’ priorities as the price of shelter, food and medical care remain stubbornly high after two years of rising inflation. To cope, consumers are cutting spending on dining out, entertainment and travel, a TransUnion study found.
Bankrate’s survey of 2,400 Americans in mid-May found that younger generations are more optimistic about eventually earning enough to live comfortably.
What does it take to be rich?
Americans have an even higher yardstick for feeling rich. The survey found they believe they would need to earn $520,000 a year to qualify as wealthy — up from their $483,000 response during the same survey last year.
The rising cost of consumer goods is a chief reason for the increase, Foster said. “Inflation is the centerpiece to this narrative,” Foster said. “Americans know where the bar is for living comfortably, but every time they get there, the cost of living goes up and the bar grows further and further away.”
Another recent report found that adults in major U.S. cities need to earn $96,500 annually before taxes to afford basic necessities and savings, while a two-parent household with two children needs a combined $235,000 for a comfortable life.
Interestingly, 2023 research from the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and colleagues suggests that happiness does increase with income, up to about $500,000 – roughly the income Americans told Bankrate would make them feel rich.
Simone Biles is heading back to the Olympics and the white-hot spotlight that comes with it.
The gymnastics superstar earned a third trip to her sport’s biggest stage by cruising to victory at the U.S. Olympic trials on Sunday night, posting a two-day all-around total of 117.225 to clinch the lone automatic spot on the five-woman team.
Three years removed from the Tokyo Olympics — where she pulled out of multiple finals to prioritize her safety and mental health — Biles heads back to the games looking perhaps as good as ever.
“Trusting the process and (my coaches), I knew I’d be back,” Biles said.
A trip to France has never really been in doubt since she returned from a two-year break last summer. All she’s done over the last 12 months is win a sixth world all-around title and her eighth and ninth national championship — both records — while further cementing her status as the best-ever in her sport.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
She’ll head to Paris as a prohibitive favorite to bookend the Olympic gold she won in 2016, but with things to work on, too.
Biles backpedaled after landing her Yurchenko double pike vault, a testament to both the vault’s difficulty and the immense power she generates during a skill few male gymnasts try and even fewer land as cleanly.
She hopped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, though she wasn’t quite as frustrated as she was during a sloppy performance on Friday that left her uttering an expletive for all the world to see.
Biles finished with a flourish on floor exercise, her signature event. Though there was a small step out of bounds, there was also the unmatched world-class tumbling that recently drew a shoutout from pop star Taylor Swift, whose song “Ready For It” opens Biles’ routine.
She stepped off the podium to a standing ovation, then sat down atop the steps to take in the moment in what could be her last competitive round on American soil for quite a while.
Next stop, Paris.
The Americans will be loaded with experience as they try to return to the top of the podium after finishing second to Russia in 2020.
Reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee, 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey and 2020 Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles and Hezley Rivera all made the final roster for Team USA. Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong will travel to Paris as alternates.
Elsa/Getty Images
Yet the Biles that will step onto the floor at Bercy Arena for Olympic qualifying in four weeks isn’t the same one that left Tokyo.
She’s taken intentional steps to make sure her life is no longer defined by her gymnastics. Biles married Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens in the spring of 2023 and the two are building a house in the northern Houston suburbs they hope to move into shortly after Biles returns from Paris.
Biles heads to France as perhaps the face of the U.S. Olympic movement, though she’s well aware that more than a few of the millions that will tune in to watch next month will be checking to see if the demons that derailed her in Tokyo resurface.
And while there are still moments of anxiety — including at last year’s world championships — she has put safeguards in place to protect herself. She meets with a therapist weekly, even during competition season, something she didn’t do in preparation for the 2020 games.
Biles, Lee, Carey, Chiles and Rivera will be considered heavy favorites in France, particularly with defending Olympic champion Russia unable to compete as part of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
The Americans will take their oldest women’s team ever to the games, as Biles’ unrivaled longevity — she hasn’t lost a meet she’s started and finished since 2013 — and the easing of rules around name, image and likeness rules at the NCAA level allowed 2020 Olympic veterans Carey, Chiles and Lee to continue to compete while cashing in on their newfound fame at the same time.
They have relied on that experience to get back to this moment during a sometimes harrowing meet that saw leading contenders Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello exit with leg injuries that took them out of the mix weeks before opening ceremonies.
