Colorado authorities on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a former funeral home owner who kept the bodies of dead women in a hearse for two years after police discovered at least 30 cremated bodies there. .
Police said the grim discovery occurred on February 6 during a court-ordered eviction of a home rented by Miles Harford, 33, owner of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in the Denver suburb of Littleton. That’s what it means. It has been closed since September 2022.
“Mr. Harford appears to have experienced financial difficulties with his business. At times, he was unable to complete a cremation to provide the remains for a memorial service to his family,” Denver Police Chief Matt Clark said Friday. Ta. He said Mr Harford may have occasionally provided his family with the ashes of others in place of those of his loved ones.
Clark said a temporary urn – a plastic box about the size of a shoebox – was discovered in a small space in the home as Denver sheriff’s deputies supervised the removal of Harford’s belongings. That’s what it means. Some boxes were empty.
Clark said another urn was found inside a moving truck parked outside, and another was found inside a hearse, where investigators found the woman’s body covered with a blanket. He said he had discovered it. Harford was not on the run and was cooperating with investigators, but said she died in August 2022.
He said the recovered remains appeared to belong to people who died between 2012 and 2021.
The discovery is the latest in a series of horrific incidents in recent years related to mishandling of bodies by funeral home owners in Colorado, a state with the weakest funeral industry oversight in the nation. The state does not have regular inspections of funeral homes or qualification requirements for operators.
A couple is awaiting trial in Colorado Springs after being arrested last year on charges of abandoning about 200 bodies in an insect-infested facility over several years and giving fake remains to the families of the dead. Operators of another funeral home in the western Colorado city of Montrose were accused last year of selling body parts and distributing fake remains and were sentenced to federal prison for mail fraud.
Harford is expected to be charged with abuse of a corpse, falsifying a death certificate, and stealing cremation funds. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said other charges are possible as the investigation progresses.
The phone number listed for Harford did not have a voicemail set up. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Clark said Harford admitted to police that he owed money to several crematoriums in the area, but there was no place to cremate the 63-year-old’s body, so he decided to store it in a hearse. He said he decided to do so. Family members told investigators they were given what they believed to be the woman’s remains and turned them over to the medical examiner’s office.
Clark said her family is devastated.
“They’re in shock. They’re hurt by this,” he said. “They believed that they were disposing of their grief with their ashes, and were receiving services using them. was found tied up in a hearse there.
Other remains found on the property appear to have been professionally cremated, officials said. Investigators are checking the remains and labels in a state database and meeting with the family.
“As you can imagine, these conversations were very difficult and this information was a shock to many families, some of whom believed they had all of their loved one’s remains,” Clark said. said.
State licensing records show no disciplinary or board action against Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, which was licensed from March 2012 to May 2022.
Harford and his company were sued by another funeral home in 2018 and ordered to pay about $27,000 for unspecified services provided by the other party, according to court records. The same Kansas-based company, Wilbert Funeral Services, sued Harford and the company again in 2021, claiming Harford owed nearly $9,000. That case is still pending.
Last year, a woman who claimed to be Mr. Harford’s former employer sought a court order to keep her away from Mr. Harford over allegations of harassment. She said in her application that she paid Mr. Harford to have two of her pets cremated, but that Mr. Harford did not return them. There is no evidence in court records that this order was granted.
