Funeral director kept body in hearse 18 months, CO officials say. He’s convicted
A funeral director arrested after an eviction uncovered a woman’s corpse that had been kept in a hearse for 18 months has pleaded guilty, Colorado prosecutors say.
Miles Harford, who owned Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, pleaded guilty to “one felony count of abuse of a corpse and one misdemeanor count of theft,” the Denver District Attorney’s Office said in an April 14 news release.
“Harford was entrusted by friends and family of the deceased with providing professional and dignified cremation services,” District Attorney John Walsh said in the release. “He violated that trust in an unimaginably harmful way — robbing those friends and family of their peace of mind and opportunity to grieve.”
At a Feb. 16, 2024 news conference announcing a warrant for Harford’s arrest, Denver Police Commander Matt Clark said a deputy stood by as a homeowner removed Harford’s things from a Denver home during an eviction on Feb. 6., 2024, McClatchy News previously reported.
In doing so, the homeowner found “several boxes in the crawlspace,” which turned out to be “temporary urn boxes” that held cremated human remains, or cremains, Clark said.
Police and medical examiner investigators responded to the home to help recover the boxes and found nearly three dozen urn boxes, “some of which were empty,” Clark said.
The homeowners also found “an inoperable hearse” in the backyard, Clark said.
While searching the hearse for additional urns, detectives found the body of a dead woman “who was covered with a blanket” in the back, Clark said.
It was later determined the 63-year-old woman died in August 2022 and that her family believed they had already received her remains, according to Clark.
“Harford had given the (woman’s) family the cremated remains of a different person in place of (the woman’s) with the intention of making them believe that (she) had been appropriately cremated,” prosecutors said.
Clark said the woman’s body had been in the hearse since shortly after death until its discovery.
Then, while searching a U-Haul parked in the front of the home, investigators found six more urns with remains, according to Clark.
“All the recovered cremains appear to be associated with individuals who passed away between 2012 and 2021,” Clark said, adding that he believed the “remains of at least 30 individuals” had been recovered.
Harford ran his Littleton business, Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, from 2012 to September 2022, according to Clark.
Over that decade, Clark said Harford began to run into financial troubles, and there were times when Clark could not complete the cremations in time for services, Clark said.
“Unbeknownst to families … Mr. Harford may have occasionally provided family members with another person’s cremated remains in lieu of their family members’ remains so services could be held,” Clark said.
Harford was arrested on charges, including abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft, related to the woman’s body discovered in the back of the hearse, in February 2024, Clark said.
“Mr. Harford is now accepting responsibility for those actions, which we hope will provide a measure of comfort to the friends and family of the deceased,” Walsh said of Harftod’s guilty plea.
Per his plea agreement, Harford will be sentenced to up to 18 months in prison at his June 9 hearing, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Funeral director kept body in hearse 18 months, CO officials say. He’s convicted."
