Oct. 7 (UPI) — Police found more than 115 bodies that were allegedly stored improperly at the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which offers environmentally friendly burials in Colorado, earlier this week.
Deputies of the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to 31 Werner Road in Penrose on Tuesday night to respond to a suspicious incident.
The deputies learned that the building was owned by the Return to Nature Funeral Home based in Colorado Springs and returned the next day with investigators with the Fremont County Coroner’s Office to execute a search warrant on the property.
“Human remains were improperly stored inside the building,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper said at a press conference Friday that the bodies have decomposed and will need to be identified through DNA, ABC News reported. He called the area of the funeral home where the bodies were found “horrific.”
“During the last 48 hours, my office made a very disturbing discovery in the town of Penrose, Colorado,” Cooper said. “There have been a lot of questions and concerns expressed by the community, especially those families who entrusted their loved ones to this funeral home.”
Investigators did not share what made the scene so horrific “to avoid further victimizing these families.” It was not immediately clear if any crime was committed and there have been no arrests made.
According to documents obtained by KOAA, business owner Jon Hallford told Zen Mayhugh, the director of the state’s Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration, that he practiced taxidermy at the property.
Mayhugh said Hallford admitted to having a problem at the property after receiving a report of an “abhorrent smell” coming from the funeral home. The funeral home’s registration with the state expired in November 2022.
