Feb. 17 (UPI) — A woman’s corpse along with cremated remains of at least 30 other people were found in the Denver home of a former funeral director, authorities have confirmed.
Miles Harford is facing multiple charges in a case that remains ongoing, Denver Police Commander Matt Clark told reporters during a briefing on Friday.
Investigators believe Harford may have also given the wrong remains to several families while he was serving as director of the now-closed Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in Littleton, Colo. Harford was also the owner of the business.
The woman’s body found at Halford’s residence was located inside a hearse. Her family had previously been told her remains were returned to them.
The medical examiner’s office later confirmed the body belonged to a 63-year-old woman who died in August 2022.
“They’re shocked,” Clark told reporters.
“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 chief said.
The Denver Sheriff Department was helping to serve an eviction at the house on Feb. 6 when the property owners first discovered human remains in a crawl space. That led to further discoveries, including the corpse in the hearse.
“It appears Mr. Harford had accumulated significant debt with several metro area crematories,” Clark said. “He was unable to complete the cremation that had been pre-arranged by the family of the woman.”
Harford has not yet been arrested but faces felony charges of abuse of a corpse and forgery of a public document as well as a misdemeanor theft charge, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann confirmed Friday.
Clark confirmed additional charges are possible, adding police are currently seeking to “facilitate the arrest” of Harford.
“It is an unusual situation, and we fully intend to prosecute once Mr. Harford is arrested,” McCann told reporters. “This situation does raise the possibility that this kind of thing is happening in other parts of the state.”
