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Miles Harford, 33, is accused of storing a woman’s body in a hearse at his home for more than a year.
DENVER — Denver Police on Thursday asked for help locating a former funeral director accused of concealing a body in a hearse at the home he was renting.
Miles Harford, 33, had been cooperating with the investigation, and last week police said he was not on the run. On Thursday, Denver Police issued a Crime Stoppers alert saying they needed help locating him. He’s wanted on a warrant for abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft.
Harford operated Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in Jefferson County from 2012 to September 2022. Last week, police issued a warrant for his arrest after investigators found the body of a woman who died in 2022 in a hearse at Harford’s rented home after he was evicted.
Investigators also believe they’ve recovered the cremated remains of at least 30 people who died between 2012 and 2021. They said additional charges are possible.
“It appears Mr. Harford had accumulated significant debt with several metro area crematories,” Denver Police Commander Matt Clark said last week. “As a result, these businesses would no longer work with Mr. Harford, and he was unable to complete the cremation that had been prearranged by the family of the woman.”
According to Clark, Harford placed the woman’s body in a hearse at the home he was renting in the 2500 block of South Quitman Street and covered her with blankets. He provided her family with the cremains of someone else, Clark said.
Her body remained there until it was discovered on Feb. 6 during an eviction process, police said Friday. On that day, the owners were removing belongings and found what appeared to be cremains in a crawl space.
While processing the scene, investigators from Denver Police and the medical examiner’s office located the inoperable hearse that had been stored in the backyard. It was towed to the street, and they saw what appeared to be additional cremains. When they opened the vehicle to retrieve them, they found the woman’s body.
At that time, a search warrant was sought to recover the body and process the scene, which included a U-Haul parked in front of the home. Investigators found six additional urns inside it. Investigators are cross-referencing state databases and information from labels on the urns to identify the cremains so that they can be given to family members.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office said the theft charge against Harford stems from a $1,200 payment the family made to Harford for cremation that was not completed. The forgery count is related to false information that was provided on a death certificate, the DA’s office said.
Anyone who knows where Harford is should contact Denver Metro Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
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