Stench leads officials to 189 rotting corpses at taxidermist’s funeral home

Enlarge / Medical examiner or forensic scientist with dead man's corpse in morgue. (credit: Getty Images)

Authorities on Tuesday reported removing the improperly stored remains of at least 189 people from a southern Colorado funeral home where the owner said he practiced taxidermy.

The home, the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, had claimed to conduct environmentally friendly "green" burials. It first came to the attention of local authorities after reports of a putrid smell pouring from the company's neglected building. On October 4, local and federal authorities executed a search warrant and initially found 115 improperly stored bodies at the facility, which is around 100 miles south of Denver and sits in Fremont County.

That same day, a Colorado state official— Zen Mayhugh, the program director of the Office Funeral Home and Crematory Registration—spoke directly with the owner and operator of Return to Nature, Jon Hallford. In the conversation, Hallford acknowledged that he had a "problem" at the facility and claimed he practiced taxidermy there.