DENVER (AP) — A Colorado funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 200 decomposing bodies in a room-temperature building admitted in federal court Monday that she cheated customers and defrauded the federal government out of nearly $900,000.
Carie Hallford, who ran Return to Nature Funeral Home with her husband Jon Hallford, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Carie Hallford faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, though federal prosecutors agreed to ask for 15 years at a December sentencing hearing.
Hallford already pleaded guilty once in federal court, but a judge last year rejected the agreement with prosecutors and still has to approve this one.
Crystina Page’s son David died in 2019, and his body was left in an inoperable refrigerator for four years. Standing outside the federal courthouse Monday, Page said she's disappointed about the possibility that neither Hallford goes on trial, something she hoped would have brought answers about what happened to her son and others entrusted to their care.
“We still don’t know the truth of what they’ve done to us,” she said.
The federal case brought against both Hallfords focused on two schemes: falsifying documents to siphon nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 pandemic-era financial aid from the U.S. Small Business Administration and deceiving customers by taking payments for cremations the Hallfords never did.
Instead of cremating the nearly 200 bodies between 2019 and 2023, the Hallfords allegedly stored the bodies in a decrepit building and sent some customers dry concrete instead of ashes.
The Hallfords pocketed around $130,000 of their customers' payments meant for cremations or burial services and spent it, along with the federal funds, on luxury products — a GMC Yukon, laser body sculpting, vacations, jewelry and cryptocurrency.
In a separate case in state court, both Hallfords have been charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse, including for twice burying the wrong body and leaving others to decompose. Jon Hallford has already pleaded guilty to those 191 counts, as well as a fraud charge in the federal case for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The building packed with bodies was discovered in 2023 in Penrose, Colorado, about a two-hour drive south of Denver. It shook already grieving families. Many learned that their loved ones' remains weren't in the ashes they spread or held tight but were instead decaying in a building.
Investigators found bodies stacked atop each other, swarms of bugs and maggots, and so much liquid on the ground it had to be pumped out.
FILE- This image provided by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff's Office shows Carie Hallford. (Muskogee County Sheriff's Office via AP, file)
BEIJING (AP) — Canada, breaking with the U.S., has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.
Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada.
China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, to from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BEIJING (AP) — Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.
Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.
“It has been a historic and productive two days,” Carney said, delivering a statement to journalists outside a Beijing park Friday afternoon. “We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we’re aligned."
“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China's top leader said.
Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”
He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.
Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called “a time of global trade disruption.”
A Canadian business owner in China called Carney's visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.
“These three things we didn’t have,” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. “The parties were not talking for years.”
No announcement was made on tariffs between China and Canada, which is a sticking point in the relationship.
Canada followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.
China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China's imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data.
China is hoping Trump’s pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.
Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.
Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, arrives to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
