Husband of Denver funeral home victim wants legislation to regulate funeral industry
George Rosales had the perfect life. He married his wife Christina in 1996 and they had two children.
"Me and her lived a fantasy life," said Rosales.
Rosales says Christina was a kitchen manager at Sheridan School District and was beloved by all.
"She touched a lot of lives. She had so much life in her. She had no enemies," said Rosales.
But their lives were turned upside down when Christina was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. After a long battle, Rosales says the disease took her life in August of 2020. She had already made plans for her burial. She wanted to hire a former Sheridan Schools student and relative of a friend, Miles Harford, to cremate her.
"She really liked him and he promised he would take care of her," said Rosales.
Things seemed to go off without a hitch until Feb. 16, 2024, when Denver police announced officers discovered Harford had seemingly been improperly handling the remains of dozens of people. Harford's landlord evicted him and found cremains in and around the house Harford rented. Police later found a body in a hearse. That body was Christina Rosales.
"The image of her in the back of a car treated like a dog just in blankets. It just... it angers me," said Rosales.
Rosales says he received remains from Harford but now knows they aren't his wife. The knowledge broke his heart all over again.
"When you lose a loved one, it hurts already. To lose them again, it just brings up the feelings again. And it took me 18 months to actually move on, but now you got to start over again. You shouldn't have to do that," said Rosales. "I'm trying to be strong for my children and for my family but I've shed tears."
He wishes Harford would have just told him he couldn't cremate his wife instead of abandoning her.
"He should have actually come to me and said, 'hey, this is what happened,'" said Rosales.
Regardless now he is just happy the love of his life is finally at peace.
"I'm just glad that she can finally be at rest," said Rosales.
He like many whose loved ones were mishandled in one of Colorado's many recent cases, says the state legislature needs to do something to regulate the funeral industry so this doesn't happen again.