Authorities arrested the owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, who are expected to face felony charges related to the discovery of nearly 200 improperly stored bodies in a building in Penrose.

Investigators entered the Return to Nature Funeral Home building in the Rocky Mountain town of Penrose some 100 miles south of Denver in early October to find “abhorrent” conditions with dozens of stacked bodies, according to a federal affidavit that’s under seal in Colorado but available in Oklahoma. Some bodies had 2019 death dates, according to the document.

In a letter to victims, the FBI said Jon and Carie Hallford were arrested Wednesday morning in Wagoner, Okla., on suspicion of abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery.

“I want to warn you, the information contained in that affidavit is absolutely shocking,” Michael Allen, the 4th Judicial District Attorney, said in a news conference Wednesday.

Court records obtained by The Denver Gazette stated that an arrest warrant was filed against Jon and Carie Hallford in Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Court on Tuesday. Court records additionally stated that each of the Hallfords faces a $2 million bond to be released from custody.

They are currently in custody in Oklahoma, facing extradition.

The Hallfords and a business partner opened Return to Nature in Colorado Springs in 2017 and worked out of buildings on Las Animas Street, East Platte Avenue and Elkton Drive in the city. The business advertised green burial services, meaning the bodies are not embalmed.

The FBI expects the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office to review the investigation and file charges in El Paso County District Court, the letter to families said. The investigation has been a joint effort between the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI.

Law enforcement and other officials announced the discovery of numerous decaying bodies at a Return to Nature Funeral Home building in early October. Initially, officials believed around 115 remains were inside. Investigators later said the number of bodies found had risen to at least 189.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller confirmed that the current number stands at 190.

In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis said he welcomed the development.

“I am relieved that criminal charges have been brought against the funeral home owner and a criminal investigation is proceeding,” Polis said. “I know this will not bring peace to the families impacted by this heart-wrenching incident but we hope the individuals responsible are held fully accountable in a court of law.”

Neighbors reported a foul smell from the building that had lingered in the air for about a month ahead of the discovery.

Officials are still working to identify all the remains, but Keller told reporters Wednesday that 110 have been positively identified.

“We have another 80 individuals that we are working on diligently to identify,” he said.

Allen and others described an ongoing process of identifying the remains using fingerprints, dental records, medical hardware and, if necessary, DNA.

To date, 25 families have received their loved ones’ remains, while several other families have been contacted for assistance with identification, according to Keller.

He implored anyone who had business with the Hallfords or Return to Nature Funeral Home between September 2019 and September 2023 to complete the FBI’s victim information questionnaire and to proactively seek out their deceased loved one’s dental records, as well.

The remains of Linda Martinez, 66, who died in 2020, were recently returned to relatives who originally thought they had interred her ashes in a cemetery.

“How do you store almost 200 people?” wondered her grandson, Michael Martinez, of Colorado Springs. “And how do you even stomach that?”

Several families have told The Associated Press that the FBI told them privately that their loved ones were among the decaying bodies, meaning the ashes they were given weren’t their family members’. Those families were asked to give samples of the ashes they received to investigators to analyze.

Retired Army officer Tanya Wilson said her mother’s body was identified in the neglected remains found last month and believes the ashes Return to Nature had given her were fake.

The bracelet left on the body of her mother, who sometimes worked three jobs to keep the family afloat, was returned to Wilson’s family with a substance left on it.

“I don’t think any amount of jail/prison time will justify my brother having to clean my mother’s rotting flesh off her bracelet that they gave back to us. Nothing,” Wilson said in a text to the AP.

AP reporters Jesse Bedayn, Mead Gruver Ken Miller and Amy Beth Hanson contributed to this report.