Denver DA files additional abuse of corpse charges against funeral home owner Miles Harford

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann has filed additional charges against Miles Harford, the funeral home owner who is accused of keeping a woman's corpse inside a hearse for more than a year and improperly storing cremated remains. The funeral home owner was arrested in February on charges including abuse of a corpse, forgery, and theft.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed additional charges against Harford, delaying his arraignment. They filed three additional charges of abuse of a corpse, and four counts of theft- at-risk victim.

Harford became the center of an investigation after the remains of a woman were discovered in a hearse at a Denver home along with the cremated remains of at least 30 individuals on Feb. 6. 

Investigators learned that Harford owned Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in Littleton which had been closed to business since September 2022.   

Staff from the Denver Medical Examiner's Office and officers from the Denver Police Department were called to the home that Harford was renting, and being evicted from, in the 2500 block of South Quitman Street after the property owner discovered boxes of cremains in a crawlspace.

While examining the scene, investigators from the police department and the medical examiner's office inspected an "inoperable hearse" that was parked in the backyard of the property and discovered the body of a deceased female and additional cremains inside the vehicle. The body has been identified as a 63-year-old woman who died of natural causes in August 2022. Investigators believe the body had been in the hearse since shortly after her passing. She has been identified as Christina Rosales.

As part of the investigation, cremains of at least 30 decedents were recovered, believed to belong to those who passed away between 2012-2021.

The judge set a date for Harford's arraignment on Jan. 17, 2025.