Colorado funeral home owner who kept body inside a hearse for over a year pleads guilty

A Colorado ceremonial location proprietor accused of improperly storing cremated remains and keeping a dormant woman's assemblage successful a hearse for implicit a twelvemonth has pleaded guilty, prosecutors said.

Miles Harford, the erstwhile proprietor of Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, pleaded blameworthy connected April 14 to 1 felony number of maltreatment of a corpse and 1 misdemeanor number of theft, according to Denver District Attorney John Walsh. Under the plea agreement, Harford volition look up to 18 months successful situation erstwhile helium is sentenced connected June 9.

Harford, 34, initially faced a full of 12 counts, including maltreatment of a corpse, forgery of a decease certificate, and theft. Other charges were dismissed arsenic portion of the plea agreement, section tv presumption KUSA reported.

Harford was arrested successful February 2024 aft Denver constabulary discovered aggregate boxes of cremated remains astatine a rental property, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. Police besides recovered the remains of Christina Rosales, 63, successful the backmost of a hearse connected the property.

“Miles Harford was entrusted by friends and household of the deceased with providing nonrecreational and dignified cremation services," Walsh said successful a statement.

"He violated that spot successful an unimaginably harmful mode — robbing those friends and household of their bid of caput and accidental to grieve. Mr. Harford is present accepting work for those actions, which we anticipation volition supply a measurement of comfortableness to the friends and household of the deceased," Walsh added.

Harford’s blameworthy plea follows a drawstring of grisly ceremonial location incidents successful Colorado successful caller years, including a lawsuit involving owners who were accused of failing to cremate oregon bury nearly 200 bodies and giving fake ashes to families.

These families trusted a ceremonial home. Their loved ones were near to rot, authorities say.

Cremated remains recovered aft homeowner evicted ceremonial location owner

On the greeting of February 6, 2024, Denver constabulary and aesculapian officials responded to a location Harford was renting from. Police said the spot proprietor had evicted Harford and reported uncovering boxes of cremated remains portion cleaning the space.

The Denver Sheriff's Department, which was antecedently contiguous during the eviction, inspected the location and discovered a dormant woman's assemblage arsenic good arsenic further cremated remains wrong the hearse connected the property, according to Denver Police Commander Matt Clark.

At the clip of the incident, Clark said the assemblage was aboriginal identified arsenic Rosales, who died successful August 2022. Her household was informed astir the discovery, and her remains were sent to the aesculapian examiner's bureau successful Denver. The Denver District Attorney’s Office said Rosales' assemblage had been wrong the hearse for astir 18 months.

According to Clark, 3 twelve impermanent urns were recovered wrong the home, with immoderate empty. He described the urns arsenic "black integrative boxes akin to the size of a footwear box." All recovered remains appeared to beryllium radical who died betwixt 2012 and 2021, Clark said.

In summation to improperly storing the cremated remains, authorities said Harford gave immoderate families remains that weren't of their loved ones.

"Harford had fixed the Rosales household the cremated remains of a antithetic idiosyncratic successful spot of Ms. Rosales, with the volition of making them judge that Ms. Rosales had been appropriately cremated," the territory attorney's bureau said. "Further probe discovered respective different inappropriate ceremonial practices."

'Fix this problem': Mishandled bodies, mixed-up remains punctual tougher ceremonial location regulations

Latest lawsuit involving Colorado ceremonial homes

For decades, Colorado had immoderate of the weakest regulations connected the ceremonial location manufacture successful the U.S. The Coloradoan, portion of the USA TODAY Network, antecedently reported that Colorado was the lone authorities without licensing requirements for ceremonial manufacture workers.

In 2024, lawmakers successful Colorado tightened regulations connected the ceremonial location industry after respective investigations into ceremonial homes crossed the authorities revealed that quality remains were being mishandled. The authorities mandates the regularisation and licensing of mortuary subject practitioners, ceremonial directors, embalmers, cremationists, and earthy reductionists.

The Colorado ceremonial location manufacture came nether scrutiny aft authorities discovered improperly stored bodies astatine a ceremonial location successful Penrose, Colorado, a tiny municipality astir 34 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, successful October 2023. After obtaining a hunt warrant, the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and section instrumentality enforcement recovered that astir 190 bodies, which were successful assorted states of decomposition, had been stored successful the building.

Prosecutors aboriginal accused the ceremonial location owners, Jon Hallford and Carie Hallford, of defrauding families crossed the state by "not providing a cremation oregon burial for the deceased arsenic promised."

The Hallfords besides allegedly gave families adust factual alternatively of ashes, collected much than $130,000 from families for cremations and burials they ne'er performed, and buried the incorrect assemblage connected astatine slightest 2 occasions, according to prosecutors.

Earlier successful 2023, the relation of different Colorado ceremonial location and her parent were sentenced to national situation for illegally selling assemblage parts oregon full bodies without the consent of the household of the deceased, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado.

The U.S. Attorney's Office announced successful January 2023 that Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years successful prison, portion her mother, Shirley Koch, got 15 years. Prosecutors said the 2 had pleaded blameworthy to 1 number of message fraud and aiding and abetting for their engagement successful stealing "the bodies oregon assemblage parts of hundreds of victims, and past (selling) those remains to victims purchasing the remains for assemblage broker services."

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY; Natasha Lovato, Fort Collins Coloradoan

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected USA TODAY: Funeral location proprietor who kept assemblage wrong a hearse pleads guilty