Colorado families may have gotten fake ashes from a funeral home where almost 200 decomposing remains were found, according to customers and crematories. Evidence implies the facility faked cremation records.
A complaint of an "abhorrent smell" coming from the facility prompted authorities to begin their investigation on October 3, when they discovered 189 decaying bodies due to unsanitary storage.
Fabricated Cremation Records
The families of those who have brought their loved ones' bodies to the Return to Nature Funeral Home, which offers "green" burials, are worried that their deceased members' remains may not have been properly cremated and may still be among the unidentified bodies.
Tanya Wilson, who thinks the ashes she distributed in Hawaii in August were fake, told the AP News, "My mom's last wish was for her remains to be scattered in a place she loved, not rotting away in a building. Any peace that we had, thinking that we honored her wishes, you know, was just completely ripped away from us."
Reportedly, the death certificates issued to Wilson's family by Return to Nature indicated that the family member's ashes had been handled by one of two crematories. However, both of those firms denied performing cremations for the funeral home on the dates specified.
The AP News reviewed four death certificates, and in each case, Wilbert Funeral Services was named as the crematorium where the deceased was cremated. The deaths occurred at least five months after the firm ceased performing cremations for Return to Nature Funeral Home in November of last year.
Wilbert's attorney, Lisa Epps, stated that at least ten family members had informed the business that they had death certificates dating back to after November 2022.
On a death certificate issued by Return to Nature in 2021, a second crematory was named Roselawn Funeral Home in Pueblo, Colorado. Roselawn's manager, Rudy Krasovec, told the family that they had not performed the cremation when they called the firm last week with the death certificate.
Experts say identifying tags or certificates are often provided to families to verify the authenticity of cremations, but none of the families questioned by the AP News had received either.
Fake Ashes?
Some of the relatives also questioned the consistency of the ashes they were given, as reported by Fox News.
All four sets of witnesses agreed that the ashes were about as dry as concrete. Two of them reported the ashes they combined with water became solid. In the past, some funeral establishments have substituted dry concrete for human ashes.
Stephanie Ford informed the source that her physician daughter had examined the ashes given by Return to Nature and discovered they were not those of Wesley Ford, Stephanie's late husband, who passed away in April.
The owners of Return to Nature, Jon and Carie Hallford, have been collaborating with police in their investigation. Thus far, no arrests have been made.
