DENVER — Police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people at the home where a financially strapped former funeral home owner kept the bodies of dead women in hearses for two years, authorities said Friday in an update. announced that it would highlight the poor quality of funeral directors in Colorado. industry.
Police said the gruesome 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. . 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 cremations to provide the remains to his family,” said Denver Police Cmdr. Matt Clark said Friday. 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. It is said that 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 said she passed away in August 2022.
He said the recovered remains appeared to belong to people who died between 2012 and 2021.
Authorities made contact with Harford, and a warrant for his arrest was issued Friday. Clark said Harford is believed to be in the Denver area and that police are “working to facilitate his arrest,” adding that Harford is cooperating with investigators.
Former customer Crystalyn Nunez said it took months to get the remains of her grandfather and father, who died in 2021, back from Harford.
He said he received repeated phone calls and emails with a series of excuses. Nunez said Harford at one point said he was involved in a car accident while transporting her body, and later claimed that her mother was involved in the accident while trying to deliver the body. When his family offered to come pick him up, Harford said he jumped out of the way.
She received her grandfather's ashes a few months later and her father's ashes nearly a year later, but she said she never received the necklace containing the ashes that her family paid for. Nuñez had already questioned whether her family had received the correct remains, she said. The discovery at Mr. Harford's home only reinforced those fears.
“The whole family is wondering if everything was done the right way,” Nuñez said. Her family contacted police to confirm they had the correct remains.
The discovery is the latest in a series of horrifying incidents involving funeral home owners in Colorado, which has some of the weakest funeral industry oversight in the nation. The state does not have regular inspections of funeral homes or qualification requirements for operators.
A Colorado Springs couple is awaiting trial after being arrested last year on charges of abandoning about 200 bodies over several years in an insect-infested facility 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.
More than 20 new criminal cases and complaints related to Colorado funeral homes have occurred since 2007, detailed in a January report to lawmakers from state regulators. Incidents include improper handling of bodies, theft of personal effects, improper embalming of bodies, labeling of bodies, and bodies not being returned to their families. The report concluded that additional regulation of the industry was “necessary to protect the public.”
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 told police he owed money to several crematoriums in the area, but none would cremate the 63-year-old's body, so he decided to store the body in a hearse. He reportedly admitted that he had done so. Her family told investigators they were given ashes believed to be the woman's remains, which were turned over to the coroner's office.
Clark said her family is devastated.
“They're in shock. They're hurt by this,” he said. “They believed that they were processing their grief with the ashes that they had, and they were receiving services using those remains. was found there tied up in her hearse.”
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.
