Funeral Home Stored Bodies for 4 Years, Deceived Families About Loved Ones’ Ashes, Prosecutors Say

A hearse and debris at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colo., on Oct. 5, 2023. Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The owners of a Colorado funeral home were arrested Wednesday in Oklahoma on charges linked to the discovery of 190 sets of decaying remains at one of their facilities, including some that apparently had been languishing there for four years.

Investigators entered the Return to Nature Funeral Home building in the Rocky Mountain town of Penrose in early October to find “abhorrent” conditions with dozens of stacked bodies, according to a federal affidavit that’s under seal in Colorado but available in Oklahoma.