At least 115 decaying bodies found in ‘eco-friendly’ funeral home | US News

At least 115 decaying bodies were discovered at a ‘green’ funeral home after the smell seeped from the building.

Police in Colorado, US, made the grim discovery inside the Return to Nature Funeral Home, where a sour, rotten stench came from the back of the building.

The funeral home performs ‘natural burials’ does not embalm with chemicals and only uses biogradeable caskets or ‘nothing at all’.

Jon Hallford, who is the alleged business owner, tried to conceal the improper storage of corpses, according to a state document.

He claimed he was doing taxidermy at the facility, and acknowledged that he had a ‘problem’ at the property.

The facility’s registration has also been expired since November.

Under Colorado law, green burials are legal but state code requires that any body not buried within 24 hours must be properly refrigerated.

Funeral home officials were cooperating as investigators sought to determine any criminal wrongdoing, Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper said at a news conference where he called the scene inside the building ‘horrific’.

No one had been arrested or charged.

Family members who have used the funeral home were asked to contact investigators.

Mary Simons, 47, said she was worried the body of her husband, Darrell Simons, was in the building.

Mr Simons had lung cancer and died of pneumonia in August, and Ms Simons hired Return to Nature Funeral Home to cremate him – but the ashes never arrived.

She said she said the news felt like she had ‘lost him all over again’.

Simons said through tears. “It’s like the grieving process is starting all over again.”

Police told Simons the process of finding out whether her husband’s body was in the building would be slow, she said.

Joyce Pavetti, 73, could see the funeral home from the stoop of her house and said she caught whiffs of a putrid smell in the last few weeks.

‘We just assumed it was a dead animal,’ she said.

Some identifications would require taking fingerprints, finding medical or dental records, and DNA testing in a process that could take several months, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller said.

Families would be notified as soon as possible after body identification, he added.

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