Funeral house proprietor ‘left girl’s physique in again of hearse for greater than a yr’
Miles Harford was arrested after the body of a woman was found in the back of a hearse along with the cremated remains of up to 30 other people stashed throughout his rental property
The owner of a funeral home has pleaded guilty to corpse abuse and theft after a woman’s remains were left in the back of a hearse for over a year.
Miles Harford, who ran Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, was arrested in 2024 after the body of 63 year old Christina Rosales was discovered in the back of a hearse, covered in blankets. The body was found along with the cremated remains of up to 30 other people, which were scattered throughout Harford’s rental property, including in the crawlspace.
The remains were discovered when police carried out a court-ordered eviction in Littleton, Denver, on February 6 last year.
Harford claimed the woman had died in 2022, and urns found throughout the home and in a moving truck were linked to individuals who passed away between 2012 and 2022.
Harford was initially charged with a dozen counts, including forgery, theft, and four counts of abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors alleged that the bodies and remains were treated “in a way that would outrage normal family sensibilities”.
As part of a plea deal, Harford pleaded guilty to one count of corpse abuse and one count of theft, with the remaining counts dismissed. However, the judge stipulated that all victims must be named within the two charges Harford pleaded guilty to, and that he would be liable for restitution, including for the dismissed counts.
The public defender’s office are representing Harford, but they do not comment on cases to the media. The court hearing gave limited details too, leaving out key information including how much money was stolen from victims or what exactly happened to the bodies.
Denver Police commander Mark Clark, who was on the scene for Harford’s arrest, shared that the family of a woman found were left devastated by the discovery.
He said last year: “They’re shocked. They were hurt by this. They believed that they were processing their grief with the remains 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 Denver district attorney’s office has said Harford could be looking at up to 18 months behind bars.
This plea comes after a string of macabre funeral home scandals in Colorado, including one where the gaffers allegedly hoarded nearly 200 corpses in a shabby shack and fobbed off families with dodgy ashes.
These mortuary mishaps have forced lawmakers to tighten the reins on Colorado’s funeral bisnesses last year, which used to be one of the most lax in the States.
Harford’s due back in the dock on June 9 for sentencing.
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