Body of deceased woman, 30 human cremains found at house after ex-funeral home owner evicted

DENVER — An arrest warrant was issued Friday for a former Colorado funeral director who police say kept a woman’s remains in a hearse for two years at a rented home, where they also found the cremated remains of up to 30 people. authorities said.

The gruesome discovery occurred on Feb. 6 during an eviction of a Denver home rented by 33-year-old Miles Harford, owner of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Service in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Denver police said. It had been closed since September 2022.

Harford, who police say is not on the run and is cooperating, is expected to be charged with abuse of a corpse, forgery of a death certificate and theft of money paid for the cremation.

Denver Police Chief. Matt Clark said Harford acknowledged to police that he could not find a crematorium to process the 63-year-old woman’s body and decided to store it in the hearse. The woman’s family told investigators they had received the woman’s remains, which they believed had been turned over to the Office of the Medical Examiner.

The other cremains found on the property appear to have been professionally cremated, officials said. Investigators are checking the labels on the cremains and state databases in an effort to return the cremains to their families. DNA testing cannot be used, officials said.

The case is not related to a case in which nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found at a funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, last October. Return to Nature Funeral Home owners Jon and Carie Hallford are facing hundreds of felony charges.

Colorado has some of the weakest regulations in the country, with no routine inspections or qualification requirements for funeral directors.