According to court documents unsealed on Monday, Jon and Carie Hallford are facing additional charges in Colorado state court for abusing corpses.

The newly filed federal charges against the Hallfords include 15 counts of fraud, which carry potential penalties of 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 each, as stated in the indictment. The couple has not yet obtained attorneys for the federal charges. Meanwhile, Michael Stuzynski, Carie Hallford's attorney for the state charges, declined to comment on the case.

Records revealed prior to the unsealing of the indictment indicate that the Hallfords had been burdened by debt, facing evictions and lawsuits for unpaid cremations. Despite their financial troubles, the indictment alleges that they misused the $882,300 in pandemic relief funds for personal expenses such as cars, vacations, dinners, tuition fees, cryptocurrency, cosmetic procedures, and jewelry.

Moreover, the indictment states that the couple collected an additional $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services that were never provided. Previous court documents from the abuse of corpse case shed light on how they spent the ill-gotten funds - purchasing a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti, taking trips to California, Florida, and Las Vegas, investing in cryptocurrency, and indulging in luxury shopping at Gucci and Tiffany & Co.

While the Hallfords spent lavishly, they left behind a trail of unpaid bills, disgruntled landlords, and unsettled business disputes. They even falsely claimed to a former landlord that payment would be settled once the funeral home was remunerated for their work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a claim later debunked by FEMA and the Department of Defense.

In 2022, public records revealed that the company failed to pay over $5,000 in property taxes, and in a separate incident last year, the business was hit with a $21,000 judgment for failing to pay for several hundred cremations, according to attorney Lisa Epps.

The indictment and the latest federal charges expose a pattern of deception and manipulation by the Hallfords over the past four years, causing immense distress to grieving families. The shocking discovery of the 190 decaying bodies in the funeral home's facility shattered the trust of families who received what they thought were the remains of their loved ones in ashes. Investigation suggests that the Hallfords may have provided fake ashes and forged cremation records, falsely attributing the cremations to Wilbert Funeral Services.

This devastating saga highlights the failure of regulators to address concerns raised as far back as 2020 regarding the improper storage of bodies at the funeral home, allowing the collection of bodies to escalate to nearly 200 over the course of three years.

As the legal proceedings unfold, families continue to grapple with the heartbreaking reality that the remains they held were not those of their loved ones. The Hallfords now face the harsh consequences of their alleged actions, with the federal charges compounding their legal troubles.