Joe McConnell
A US funeral home where 190 decomposing bodies were found has been ordered to pay $950m (£746m) to the families of the victims.
The Back to Nature house, in the town of Penrose, Colorado, had gave fake ashes to grieving relatives instead of the remains of their loved ones.
A judge ordered the payment in a civil case, but it is unlikely to be made because the funeral home’s owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, were in dire financial straits.
Neither man attended the hearings. Mr. Hallford is in custody, while his wife is out on bail.
“I’m never going to get a dime from them, so, I don’t know, it’s a little frustrating,” Crystina Page, who hired the funeral home to cremate her son’s remains in 2019, told The Associated Press.
Mrs Page, who carried what she thought were her son’s ashes with her for four years before his body was identified in the house, also said the couple’s failure to appear in court was a slap in the face for her.
The victims’ attorney, Andrew Swan, told the AP that while the couple’s financial situation was known from the beginning, his clients wanted answers.
“I would have preferred them to participate, if only because I wanted to put them on the witness stand, have them sworn in and ask them how they came to do this, not once, not twice, but hundreds of times,” he said.
More than 100 family members are involved in the civil case, whose case has been kept open in case others come forward.
The Hallfords also face hundreds of state and federal criminal charges, including abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery.
They had received a plea deal from state prosecutors on 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, the BBC’s US partner CBS says. However, it is unclear whether it still stands.
Located about 30 miles (48 km) south of Colorado Springs, the funeral home specialized in burials that did not use chemicals, including embalming fluids, and in which the remains were buried in a biodegradable casket.
The investigation began after reports of a foul odor coming from the property in early October led authorities to discover 115 bodies.
Jon Hallford was charged by authorities with attempting to conceal “improper preservation of human remains.”
Eco-friendly funerals are permitted in the state, but ashes must be buried within 24 hours or properly refrigerated.
Currently, funeral directors in Colorado are not required to have a license, a degree in mortuary science, or even a high school diploma.
Stricter laws have been passed since the scandal broke, but they won’t come into force until 2026.
