US funeral home owners who ‘stored 190 decaying bodies’ fined $950m

A hearse and debris sit behind the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado (Jerilee Bennett/AP)

The US funeral home owners who allegedly stored 190 decaying bodies and sent grieving families fake ashes have been ordered by a judge to pay $950m (€871m) to the victims’ relatives in a civil case.

The judgment is unlikely to be paid out since the owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, have been in financial trouble for years.