DENVER (AP) — A former funeral home owner who helped her ex-husband hide nearly 200 decomposing bodies faces sentencing Friday for corpse abuse in a case that forced Colorado officials to clamp down on an industry plagued by repeated scandal and notoriously lax oversight.

A plea agreement calls for Carie Hallford to receive from 25 to 35 years in prison during her appearance before District Judge Eric Bentley in Colorado Springs.

Her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, received a 40-year sentence on corpse abuse charges at a February hearing in which he was called a “monster” by family members of those whose bodies were left to rot.

Carie Hallford was the public face of Return to Nature, dealing with bereaved customers at the couple’s funeral home in Colorado Springs. Jon, still her husband at the time, performed much of the physical work at another location south of Colorado Springs in Penrose, where neighbors in 2023 noticed a foul odor and complained.

Authorities found bodies piled throughout the bug-infested Penrose building in various states of decomposition.

The case became the most egregious in a string of criminal cases involving Colorado funeral homes as details emerged about the Hallfords’ lavish spending and their pattern of defrauding customers.

Just months before the bodies were found in Penrose, a mother and daughter who operated a funeral home in the western Colorado city of Montrose were sentenced to federal prison after being accused of selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes.

In 2024, authorities in Denver arrested a financially troubled former funeral home owner who kept a deceased woman’s body in a hearse for two years at a house where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people.

And last year, state inspectors found 24 decomposing bodies and multiple containers of bones behind a hidden door of a Pueblo funeral home owned by the Pueblo County coroner and his brother. It was the first ever inspection of that mortuary under new rules that allow all funeral homes to be routinely inspected.

Carie Hallford asked for leniency in March when she was sentenced in a related federal fraud case, saying she was a victim of abuse and manipulation in her marriage.

But she enters Friday’s hearing with limited sympathy from victims such as Crystina Page, whose son, David, died in 2019. His body languished for years inside the room-temperature building in Penrose with other corpses before their discovery.

Jon Hallford “was the monster under the bed, but Carie was the one who fed the monster,” Page said. Page and others received fake ashes instead of the cremated remains they were promised.

The Hallfords, who divorced following their arrest, received prison sentences in the related federal fraud case — 18 years for Carie and 20 years for Jon. They have each appealed.

State officials and industry representatives said this week that industry reforms adopted by Colorado lawmakers are making a difference.

In response to the Hallford case, the state mandated inspections and adopted an industry licensing system. The changes put Colorado “in the middle of the pack” compared to regulation in other states, acknowledged Sam Delp with the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the funeral industry.

“We were the only state in the country that didn’t regulate them,” said Delp, who directs the agency’s Division of Professions and Occupations.

Matt Whaley, president of the Colorado Funeral Home Directors Association, suggested that customers have become more cautious after years of news coverage about Return to Nature and other businesses where crimes occurred.

More often now, family members ask to be present for a loved one’s cremation rather than just receive the ashes after the fact, Whaley said.

“The confidence level of a funeral professional in the state of Colorado is questioned, and we’ve got to work hard, one family at a time, to build that trust back,” he said.

Blanca Eberhardt, a licensed funeral director who previously practiced mortuary science in Indiana, Texas and Hawaii, recalled moving to Colorado and being appalled at the mistreatment of some corpses inside a funeral home where she worked in Pueblo. For Eberhardt, the experience confirmed Colorado’s reputation for lacking basic rules such as licensing for funeral home directors and routine inspections.

“The joke has been for the last 40 years if you lose your license in another state, just move to Colorado,” she said.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press journalist Thomas Peipert contributed to this story.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Large crowds gathered in Ko Olina on Thursday for a benefit concert to support flood victims from last month’s Kona low storms.

The Aloha in Action benefit concert boasted an all-star lineup, including Jack Johnson, Kokohe Kai, Jason Momoa, Amy Hanaialii and Kimie Miner, to name a few.

“We called it ‘Aloha in Action,’ because, really, that’s what it’s all about. Everyone just showing their aloha, coming together and making sure that we’re doing our part to support others when there is need,” said Kuhio Lewis, president and CEO of the Hawaiian Council.

Proceeds from the concert will go to the Hawaiian Council’s Kakoo Mai fund to benefit residents affected by the flood, with some also going to nonprofit organizations providing support.

So far, organizers said they’ve raised almost $3 million in collective funds.

“It’s going to go to support the nonprofits that are on the ground doing that important work, oftentimes it’s hard to raise the money at the same time, so we’re being that conduit to help them to do that part, raise the money to make sure they’re resourced and supporting our community.”

Lewis said they are using their experience from assisting with the recovery of the 2023 Lahaina wildfires to help flood-impacted residents.

“We learned a lot in helping the Lahaina residents recover, he said. “So when we saw what was going on here, we applied all of our knowledge to helping the residents that were impacted by the floods.”

Organizers say as of earlier Thursday afternoon, 6,500 tickets were sold.

The concert runs until 10 p.m., and tickets are still available.

“Just come down,” he said. “We’re still selling tickets at the door. We don’t want to deny anyone. It’s a great showing of the community coming together.”

There is a charge for parking, cash only.

BOISE, Idaho — Newly obtained documents from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office are raising questions about transparency behind a major ballot initiative effort, while updated public records show changes in how millions of dollars tied to the campaign are being reported.

In documents Idaho News 6 obtained from the Secretary of State’s Office, five in total, the state raises concerns that the campaign may not have fully disclosed the source of its donations.

WATCH: Funding behind Idaho cannabis initiative reviewed in new records

Idaho officials review cannabis campaign as donor records change

But as of Thursday evening, public campaign finance records on Idaho Sunshine show a change.

What was previously listed about $1.7 million in contributions from the Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho LLC now shows that money attributed to two sources: $1 million from Double Springs Ranch, LLC and $700,000 from Mike Tunney.

Both are tied to the family of Dr. Dori Tunney, who died in 2024 after a battle with brain cancer. Campaign organizers have said her experience helped inspire the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act.

In a previous interview, campaign spokesperson Amanda Watson described the family’s involvement and said privacy was initially a factor.

“This incredible woman, Dr. Dori Tunney, she unfortunately passed away in 2024 after a very brutal bout of glioblastoma. Our group is trying to finish the work she began, and I think for the privacy of the family, there was maybe the hope that it could be done without having to drag, kind of, that story into it. All the cards are on the table; these are Idaho people,” Watson said.

At the center of the state’s review are two connected entities: the Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho PAC and the Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho LLC.

The PAC is the political committee supporting the ballot initiative. The LLC, according to the campaign, is a for-profit merchandise business tied to that effort.

In correspondence, the Secretary of State’s Office questions whether that LLC was used in a way that could conceal donor identities and whether it should instead be classified as a “nonbusiness entity,” which would require full disclosure of its contributors.

Campaign representatives have pushed back, saying the LLC is a legitimate business, pointing to merchandise sales and operations.

Watson said the campaign has been transparent and believes it is fully compliant with Idaho law.

The development comes as the campaign says it has collected more than 100,000 signatures, with just over 70,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the 2026 ballot.

The Secretary of State’s Office has also urged campaigns to submit signatures sooner rather than later to help county clerks manage the verification process.

The Secretary of State’s Office said it is still reviewing the information and declined to comment further.