Colorado Funeral Home Director Gets 40-Year Term in Corpse-Handling Scandal
The owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs was sentenced to 40 years in state prison for abuse of a corpse, money laundering, theft and forgery in a case tied to nearly 200 decomposing bodies stored improperly and the delivery of fake ashes; his wife pleaded guilty in federal/state cases and faces decades. The 40-year sentence runs concurrently with his existing 20-year federal term as families described lasting trauma, while authorities noted hazardous conditions at the site during cleanup and the rise of green-burial practices in Colorado.
