The body of a woman and the cremated remains of at least 30 people were discovered at a home in Colorado that belongs to a former funeral home owner.
Police found the corpse and the remains on February 6th after Miles Harford, 33, was evicted from his Southwest Denver home that he was renting.
Harford was the former owner of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in the Denver suburb of Littleton.
Denver Police Cmdr. Matt Clark said at a press conference, “We discovered some of the remains in temporary urns, black plastic boxes, that were in the homes crawl space. They were also found in a moving truck and an inoperable hearse parked in the backyard.”
Clark also stated that authorities found the body of a deceased 63-year old woman covered in blankets inside the hearse. A coroner determined that she had died in August of 2022.
“Through the investigation, detectives have determined the woman’s remains have likely been stored and concealed in the hearse since shortly after her passing,” Clark said. “The family previously received remains from the funeral home that they believed were their loved one.”
Clark said the remains appeared to be associated with people who died between the years 2012 and 2021. Investigators, he said, are cross referencing tags and labels found with the remains to attempt to identify the families.
“As you can imagine these are extremely difficult conversations to have and the information comes as a shock to many of the families several of whom believed they had the entire remains of their loved one.”
“Harford appears to have experienced financial trouble in his business,” Clark said. “At times he was not able to complete cremations to provide remains to families for services. Unbeknownst to families who sought services from Apollo Funeral Services, Mr. Harford may have occasionally provided family members with another person’s cremated remains in lieu of their family members remains so services could be held.”
Authorities said the business had been closed since Sept. 2022.
An arrest warrant was issued Friday for investigation of abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft.
