Inside the grim house where funeral home owner stashed remains of 30 people

25 February 2024 , 13:23

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Remains were found at Miles Harford residence earlier this month (Image: CBS)

A former funeral home owner accused of keeping a woman’s rotting corpse in the back of a hearse for two years has been arrested after police made a number of grim discoveries.

Miles Harford, the 33-year-old who used to be in charge of Apollo Funeral & Cremation Services in the Denver suburbs, has also been accused of hoarding the cremated remains of 30 other people at his home. While examining the scene, shocked investigators made some harrowing finds.

The abandoned 63-year-old woman's body and the cremated human remains were found on February 6 during a court-ordered eviction of his house. It was later discovered the woman died in August of 2022 after she was discovered in the car and it wasn't the only grisly discovery.

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He kept a dead woman's body in hearse for two years and had 35 people's remains stashed at the home (CBS)

Officers were met by scene of urns stashed around the property but things soon got worse when police opened the door of the hearse and were hit with the “foul odor,” seeing the outline of the human body seemingly strapped to the gurney and covered by blankets, according to the arrest affidavit.

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But shockingly for families of the deceased, Harford might have provided them with another person's ashes instead of the ashes of their loved ones, Denver Police Commander Matt Clark said.

Harford had been cooperating with investigators when the arrest warrant was announced last week. But he failed to turn himself in to authorities leading to an offer of a $2,000 Crimestoppers award for information leading to his arrest because authorities are unable to find him.

A grisly scene of urns stashed around the Harford property (CBS)

He appeared to have experienced financial trouble in his business and was at times not able to complete cremations to provide remains to families for memorials. More urns were found in a moving truck parked outside, while others were in the funeral hearse where investigators found the woman's dead body hidden under blankets. Harford is facing charges of abuse of a corpse, forgery of the death certificate and theft of the money paid for the woman's cremation.

The arrest follows the discovery of 190 decaying bodies in a building run by the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, about two hours south of Denver.

Miles Hartford's mugshot (Arapahoe County)

A married couple who owned Return to Nature are awaiting trial in Colorado Springs following their arrest last year on allegations they gave fake ashes to relatives of the deceased. The operators of another funeral home in the western Colorado city of Montrose received federal prison sentences last year for mail fraud after they were accused of selling body parts and distributing fake ashes.

Sam Elliott-Gibbs