Colorado authorities issued an arrest warrant for a former funeral home owner who they say kept a deceased woman's body in a hearse for two years at a residence where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people.

The grisly discovery occurred Feb. 6 during a court-ordered eviction of a Denver house rented by 33-year-old Miles Harford, who owned Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Denver police said. It had been closed since September 2022.

The discovery is the latest in a string of horrific cases in recent years involving mishandled bodies by funeral home operators in Colorado, which has some of the weakest oversight of the funeral industry in the nation. The state has no routine inspections of funeral homes or qualification requirements for operators.

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    8·
    9 months ago

    “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 said Friday. He said on occasion, Harford might have provided family members with another person’s ashes instead of the ashes of their loved ones.

    … Other urns were found in a moving truck parked outside and still others were in a hearse, where investigators found the woman’s body covered with blankets, Clark said. Harford said she died in August of 2022.

    The recovered cremains appear to be associated with individuals who passed away between 2012 and 2021, he said.

    In 2018, Harford and his company were sued by another funeral home company and ordered to pay about $27,000 for unspecified services the other home provided, according to court records. The same company, Kansas-based Wilbert Funeral Services, sued Harford and the company again in 2021, saying Harford owed nearly $9,000. …

    Last year, a woman who said she was Harford’s former employer sought a court order to keep him away from her over alleged harassment. In her application, she said she had paid Harford to cremate two of her pets but he didn’t return them to her. …

    Dude’s not well in the pocketbook nor the head.

    Govt. report concludes stronger regulations needed.