A woman’s body and the cremated remains of at least 30 people have been discovered at the Colorado home of a former funeral home owner.
Authorities found the corpse and the remains on Feb. 6 after Miles Harford, 33, was evicted from the southwest Denver home he was renting.
Harford was the former owner of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in the Denver suburb of Littleton.
Some of the remains were found in temporary urns — black plastic boxes — in the home’s crawl space, a moving truck and an inoperable hearse parked in the backyard, Denver Police Cmdr. Matt Clark said at a press conference Friday.
Clark said officers found the body of a deceased 63-year-old woman covered in blankets inside the hearse. She died in Aug. of 2022, Clark said.
“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.
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I am quite unsure that funeral home owners are exactly honest. I used to attend a church which had previously been used as a funeral home, and each time I used the toilet I could smell the formaldehyde which had previously been used in that building.