A financially troubled former funeral house proprietor saved a deceased girl’s physique in a hearse for 2 years at a home the place police additionally discovered the cremated stays of at the very least 30 folks, authorities stated Friday within the newest case to underscore lax oversight of Colorado’s funeral trade.
The grisly discovery occurred Feb. 6 throughout a court-ordered eviction of a home rented by Miles Harford, the 33-year-old proprietor of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Companies within the Denver suburb of Littleton, police stated. It had been closed since September 2022.
“Mr. Harford appears to have experienced financial trouble in his business. At times he was not able to complete cremations to provide remains to families for services,” Denver Police Cmdr. Matt Clark stated Friday. He stated once in a while, Harford might need supplied relations with one other individual’s ashes as an alternative of the ashes of their family members.
Momentary urns — plastic packing containers the scale of a shoe field — have been discovered within the crawl area of the home whereas a Denver sheriff’s deputy oversaw the removing of Harford’s belongings, Clark stated. Among the packing containers have been empty.
Different urns have been present in a shifting truck parked outdoors and nonetheless others have been in a hearse, the place investigators discovered the lady’s physique lined with blankets, Clark stated. Harford stated she died in August of 2022.
The recovered cremains look like related to people who handed away between 2012 and 2021, he stated.
Authorities have been involved with Harford and an arrest warrant was issued for him Friday. He’s believed to be within the Denver space and police have been “working to facilitate his arrest,” Clark stated, including that Harford has been cooperative with investigators.
Former buyer Crystallyn Nunez stated it took months to get the ashes of her grandfather and father again from Harford after they died in 2021.
Repeated cellphone calls and texts have been met with a sequence of excuses, she stated. Harford at one level stated he was in a automobile crash whereas transporting the stays, then later claimed his mom had gotten into an accident whereas attempting to ship them, Nunez stated. When the household provided to come back decide them up, Harford danced across the problem, she stated.
She bought her grandfather’s ashes after a number of months and her father’s ashes after practically a 12 months, however by no means acquired necklaces containing their stays that the household had paid for, she stated. Nunez stated her household already had doubts that they’d acquired the right stays. The invention at Harford’s home solely strengthened these fears.
“It’s making our whole family question whether or not everything was done the correct way,” stated Nunez. Her household has contacted police to find out if they’ve the right stays.
The invention is the newest in a string of horrific circumstances involving funeral house operators in Colorado, which has a number of the weakest oversight of the funeral trade within the nation. The state has no routine inspections of funeral houses or qualification necessities for operators.
A married couple is awaiting trial in Colorado Springs following their arrest final 12 months for allegedly abandoning almost 200 bodies over a number of years inside a bug-infested facility and giving fake ashes to relations of the deceased. The operators of one other funeral house within the western Colorado metropolis of Montrose acquired federal prison sentences final 12 months for mail fraud after they have been accused of promoting physique components and distributing faux ashes.
Greater than two dozen extra criminal cases and complaints involving Colorado funeral houses since 2007 have been detailed in a January report back to lawmakers from state regulators. The circumstances included our bodies being mishandled, thefts of non-public results, improper embalming of our bodies, mislabeled stays and stays by no means returned to households. The report concluded that extra regulation for the trade was “necessary to protect the public.”
Harford is predicted to be charged with abuse of a corpse, forgery of the loss of life certificates and theft of the cash paid for the cremation. Different costs are attainable because the investigation continues, stated Denver District Legal professional Beth McCann.
No voicemail was arrange on a phone quantity listed for Harford. He additionally didn’t instantly reply to emails looking for remark.
Clark stated Harford acknowledged to police that he owed cash to a number of crematories within the space and none would cremate the 63-year-old girl’s physique, so he determined to retailer her physique within the hearse. Her household instructed investigators they got what they believed have been the lady’s ashes, which have been turned over to the Workplace of the Medical Examiner.
The household is devastated, Clark stated.
“They’re shocked. They were hurt by this,” he stated. “They believed that they were processing their grief with the remains that they had and had had services with that. And then they come to find out that that was not the person that was processed, and in fact, she was being held in that hearse there.”
The opposite cremains discovered on the property seem to have been professionally cremated, officers stated. Investigators are checking labels on the cremains and state databases and assembly with households.
“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,” Clark stated.
State licensing information present no self-discipline or board actions for Apollo Funeral and Cremation Companies, which was licensed from March 2012 by means of Could 2022.
In 2018, Harford and his firm have been sued by one other funeral house firm and ordered to pay about $27,000 for unspecified companies the opposite house supplied, in keeping with court docket information. The identical firm, Kansas-based Wilbert Funeral Companies, sued Harford and the corporate once more in 2021, saying Harford owed practically $9,000. That case remains to be pending.
Final 12 months, a girl who stated she was Harford’s former employer sought a court docket order to maintain him away from her over alleged harassment. In her utility, she stated she had paid Harford to cremate two of her pets however he didn’t return them to her. There’s no indication in court docket information that the order was granted.
Related Press reporter Thomas Peipert contributed to this story.
