DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge rejected the plea deal of a funeral home owner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies in a bug-infested building Monday after family members of the deceased argued that the deal's 15- to 20-year sentence was too lenient.

Carie Hallford and her husband, Jon Hallford , owned Return to Nature Funeral Home and are accused of dumping the bodies in a building in a rural town between 2019 and 2023, giving families fake ashes and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 .

See Full Page