- A Colorado funeral director left nearly 200 bodies to rot for years and deceived relatives with fake ashes.
- The fraud was discovered in 2023 when neighbors noticed an unpleasant smell.
- The man has now been sentenced to 40 years in prison, and his ex-wife’s sentence is due to be announced at the end of April.
A court in the US state of Colorado has imposed a long prison sentence on a funeral director who left around 200 bodies to rot in a dilapidated building over the years instead of cremating them. According to investigators, Jon H. collected money from the grieving families, gave them dry concrete and made them believe that it was the ashes of their dead relatives.
Judge Eric Bentley sentenced him to 40 years behind bars on Friday (local time). Survivors had called for the maximum sentence of 50 years and described H. as a “monster” whose actions would have given them nightmares.
The entrepreneur and his wife were accused of dumping 189 bodies in the building in the small town of Penrose, southwest of Colorado Springs, since 2019. The fraud came to light when neighbors complained about an acrid smell in 2023. Authorities found bodies piled on top of each other throughout the building, some crawling with insects. Some remains were so decomposed that they could no longer be identified.
Ex-couple agreed to plea deal in criminal case
H. and his ex-wife Carie H., who co-ran the funeral home, pleaded guilty to around 200 counts of desecration of corpses in December as part of a plea agreement in criminal proceedings. They were obviously driven by greed, said prosecutor Shelby Crow. Accordingly, the defendants demanded more than 1,200 dollars (around 930 francs) per customer. During the years they left the bodies to rot in the building, they lived in luxury, according to court documents. The money the former couple spent on luxury goods would have covered the cost of cremating all the bodies many times over, Crow explained.
H.’s defense unsuccessfully requested a prison sentence of 30 years. His lawyer argued that it was not a violent crime and that his client had no previous convictions.
Another case in Colorado
Daughter: Mother “treated like yesterday’s trash”
Several survivors testified in the trial, including Kelly Mackeen, who had commissioned H.’s company to bury her mother. “I am a daughter whose mother was treated like yesterday’s trash and dumped in a place where she rotted with hundreds of others,” Mackeen said. Others reported that they had been plagued by nightmares about rotting corpses and maggots ever since the defendants’ machinations were uncovered.
“My mother was treated like yesterday’s trash.”
Before announcing the sentence, Judge Bentley told H. that he had caused “unspeakable and incomprehensible” damage. «I personally believe that each of us, each person, is good at the core. But we live in a world that tests that faith every day – and (…) your crimes put that faith to the test.”
Convicted man appears contrite
H. apologized and said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life. “I had so many opportunities to end everything and walk away, but I didn’t,” he said. «My mistakes will reverberate for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.” The sentence for his ex-wife is due to be announced at the end of April. She faces 25 to 35 years behind bars.
In a federal case, H. and his ex-wife also pleaded guilty to having swindled $900,000 from Corona aid for small businesses. For this, H. was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the sentence for Carie H. is still pending. The agreement from the corpse desecration case stipulates that the prison sentence in the state of Colorado will be served concurrently with the sentence imposed at the federal level.
Are you grieving or is someone you know grieving?
You can find help here:
That’s why the comment field was deactivated
Alessia Rambaldi (ram) has been working for 20 minutes since 2024. After an internship in the Bern department, she moved to the news desk in May 2025.
