A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed nearly 190 dead bodies in a decrepit building and sent grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison in federal court Friday for cheating customers and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,

Jon Hallford, the co-owner of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in southern Colorado, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in federal court on Friday. He pleaded guilty last fall in connection with misusing federal pandemic relief funds in regard to his business.

Investigators described finding decaying bodies stacked up throughout a dilapidated, insect-infested building.