Colorado funeral home with "green" burials investigated after discovery of improperly stored bodies

UPDATE: 115+ bodies discovered at Colorado funeral home, identification could take "several months"

An investigation into the improper storage of human remains at a southern Colorado funeral home in Fremont County was underway on Thursday. Fremont County Sheriff's Office deputies were at the building owned by the Return to Nature Funeral Home in the small town of Penrose, according to the CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs. 

According to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, "On October 4, 2023, FCSO investigators, the Fremont County Coroner's Office, and the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies executed a search warrant on the property and determined that human remains were improperly stored inside the building."

Trash bags could be seen Thursday outside the entrance of the company's single-story building with two law enforcement vehicles parked in front. Yellow police tape cordoned off the area and a putrid odor pervaded the air. A hearse was parked at the back of the building, in a parking lot overgrown with weeds.

The Return to Nature Funeral Home provides burial of non-embalmed bodies in biodegradable caskets, shrouds or "nothing at all," according to its website. Messages left for the Colorado Springs-based company were not immediately returned.

"No embalming fluids, no concrete vaults. As natural as possible," reads the website.

The FBI is involved in the investigation along with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, the Fremont County Coroners' Office, The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, and the Colorado Department of Public Health.

Additional Information from the Fremont County Sheriff's Office:

"The Fremont County Sheriff's Office is asking that family members of decedents who utilized the Return to Nature Funeral Home please send an email to 23-1941@fremontso.com. Please leave the best contact number and time to call in this email. We will respond to each email. If you do not use email, then you can contact the Fremont Emergency Management call line at (719)-i276-7421. We will have victims' assistance personnel responding to messages beginning October 6, 2023, between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm. We will also have victim assistance personnel available at 1901 East Main, Canon City CO, between 10 am and 6 pm."