In recent months, the funeral home industry in the United States has come under intense scrutiny following a series of high-profile scandals involving alleged fraud, abuse, and regulatory failures. From Kansas City to Colorado, grieving families have found themselves at the center of shocking revelations about the very institutions entrusted with their loved ones’ final care. The fallout has been swift, with indictments, civil actions, and calls for sweeping reforms echoing across state lines.
On December 22, 2025, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in Missouri announced that it had secured a grand jury indictment against Savory and Sons Funeral Home, a Kansas City establishment long dogged by complaints and disciplinary records. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway revealed that her office had filed a petition for injunction, civil penalties, and other remedies against Frank Savory IV and S. Family Enterprises, LLC, the company operating under the Savory and Sons name. The allegations are serious: false promises, unfair business practices, and the exploitation of some of the community’s most vulnerable members.
“When a funeral home exploits grief with false promises, we will hold them responsible,” Hanaway stated, according to KMBC 9. “Families should never face the risk of having their trust in a funeral home betrayed. We are glad to secure this indictment alongside Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson for the people of Missouri.”
The details of the case are unsettling. Court documents allege that between 2023 and 2025, Frank Savory operated and managed the funeral home without the license required by Missouri law, despite the establishment’s license having been revoked earlier in 2025. The charges against Savory include financial exploitation of a disabled person, stealing, and deceptive business practices—all felonies. Some customers claimed they never received their loved one’s ashes after paying for funeral services, raising painful questions about what really happened behind closed doors.
According to FOX4, state records reveal that Savory and Sons faced multiple disciplinary actions, including citations for expired or nonexistent funeral director licenses. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office, working in tandem with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, has made it clear that protecting grieving families from such exploitation is a top priority. “We will never tolerate exploitation of our community’s most vulnerable members,” Johnson emphasized. “My office will continue to hold any business accountable that engages in criminal activity that harms the people of Jackson County.”
But Missouri is not alone in grappling with funeral home abuses that have shaken public trust. In Colorado, a case of even greater magnitude has unfolded, capturing national attention and prompting urgent calls for reform. On December 22, 2025, a state judge accepted plea agreements for Carie and Jon Hallford, the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, for what authorities have called the abuse of 191 corpses over a four-year period from 2019 to 2023.
The facts are chilling. Investigators discovered bodies stored in a room-temperature, bug-infested building in Penrose, Colorado—some of which had been decomposing for as long as four years. According to the Associated Press, the Hallfords maintained a lavish lifestyle while giving fake ashes to some families and collecting payments for cremations that were never performed. The couple also admitted in federal court to defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era aid.
The plea agreements, accepted by state District Judge Eric Bentley, will see Jon Hallford sentenced to between 30 and 50 years and Carie Hallford to between 25 and 35 years, with the terms to be served concurrently with their federal sentences for related charges. Jon Hallford is scheduled for sentencing on February 6, 2026, and Carie Hallford on April 24, 2026.
The families of the victims, however, were far from satisfied with the outcome. Many had pushed for much harsher penalties—191 years each, one for every victim—and argued that the state and federal sentences should be served separately. “This case is not about convenience or efficiency,” said Crystina Page, whose son’s body was among those found. “It is about human beings who were treated as disposable. Accepting a plea agreement sends the message that this level of abuse is negotiable. We reject that message.”
Kelly Schloesser, whose mother was among the deceased, expressed her anguish in court: “I apologize to my mother every day for trusting these people.” Judge Bentley, while acknowledging the pain of the families, explained that he could not legally stack the state sentences on top of the federal ones, as it would constitute double punishment for the same conduct. He did, however, praise the families for their advocacy, which he said directly resulted in the much lengthier sentence ranges now in place. “These are really meaningful changes from where I sit,” Bentley remarked.
The Return to Nature case has had far-reaching consequences beyond the courtroom. Colorado, long criticized for having some of the weakest funeral home industry regulations in the country, has since introduced reforms, including routine inspections of funeral homes. The need for such oversight became even more apparent in August 2025, when authorities discovered 24 decomposing corpses hidden behind a secret door in a funeral home owned by the Pueblo county coroner—a separate case that remains under investigation, with some bodies still unidentified after more than a decade.
The common thread running through both the Missouri and Colorado scandals is a devastating breach of trust. Families, already reeling from loss, found themselves victimized by the very businesses meant to help them honor and remember their loved ones. In both cases, authorities have stressed the importance of holding wrongdoers accountable and restoring public confidence in an industry that, by its nature, requires the utmost integrity.
For many, the legal actions and policy changes now underway offer a measure of hope that such abuses will become far less common. Yet, as the stories of the Savory and Hallford cases make clear, vigilance, transparency, and robust regulation remain essential to ensuring that the final chapter in a loved one’s life is handled with the dignity and respect every family deserves.
The pain of betrayal lingers for those affected, but their advocacy has already begun to reshape an industry in desperate need of reform. As communities across the country watch these cases unfold, the message is unmistakable: when it comes to caring for the dead and comforting the living, there can be no room for deception or neglect.
