A woman’s body and the cremated remains of at least 30 others were found stashed inside the rented Denver home of a failed funeral director this week while he was being evicted, police said.
Police made the disturbing discovery while standing watch on Feb. 6 as homeowners carried out the court-ordered eviction against their tenant, Miles Harford, the 33-year-old owner of now-shuttered Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in the Denver suburb of Littleton.
“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,” Cmdr. Matt Clark said at a press conference Friday.
Dozens of temporary urns — many of which were filled with cremains — were found stored in a crawlspace inside a home, and several more were found in an old hearse that was ditched in its backyard.
That’s where they also found the body of a 63-year-old woman, who died of natural causes in August 2022.
Hartford allegedly handed the woman’s family the cremains of a stranger and hid the body under a blanket in his car shortly after her death.
Many of the other cremains have been hidden in Hartford’s possession for much longer — with some deaths dating back to 2012, according to Clark.
Hartford found himself unable to fulfill the cremation requests of grieving families after accumulating significant debt with multiple crematories in the metro Denver area, police allege.
His business went under in September 2022.
“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 member’s remains so services could be held,” Clark said.
“Through conversations with the families, it has come to light that many experienced delays in obtaining cremated remains from Apollo and Mr. Harford. Some expected pieces of jewelry with their loved ones’ cremains but never received those.”
Many of the replaced remains likely belonged to indigent people or those who did not have any known living relatives.
Investigators have taken on the nearly impossible task of identifying the 30 other decadents — the individuals’ DNA was obliterated by the high heat of the cremation process.
Hartford was charged with abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft.
Police noted that there is no known connection to the “eco-friendly” Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, where nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in October.
Owners Jon and Carie Hallford let the bodies rot in their decrepit facility while they used funds from hundreds of clients on cars, crypto and designer jewelry, court documents revealed last week.
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Katherine Donlevy
