Colorado funeral dwelling proprietor who left corpse in hearse for over a yr sentenced to 18 months

DENVER — A Colorado funeral home-owner who pleaded responsible to leaving a girl’s corpse at the back of a hearse for over a yr and improperly stashing the cremated stays of at the very least 30 individuals has been sentenced to 18 months in jail, the Denver District Lawyer’s Workplace introduced.

Miles Harford, 34, pleaded responsible in April to at least one felony rely of abuse of a corpse and one misdemeanor rely of theft. He confronted different counts, together with forgery and theft, that have been dismissed as a part of his plea settlement.

His 18-month sentence is the utmost sentence underneath Colorado regulation for the costs.

“Nothing will ever undo the horrible ache that Miles Harford brought on so many households, however it’s our hope that this sentence will present the household and buddies of the deceased with some measure of justice,” Denver District Lawyer John Walsh stated in an announcement Monday. “Harford systematically and shockingly violated his skilled and ethical obligations, and, for that, he’s now being held accountable.”

Harford was arrested final yr after the physique of a girl named Christina Rosales, who died of Alzheimer’s at age 63, was discovered at the back of his hearse, coated in blankets. Her stays had been there for about 18 months. Authorities stated he had offered the Rosales household with the cremated stays of a distinct individual that he misrepresented as Rosales.

Police additionally discovered the cremated stays of different individuals stashed in bins all through Harford’s rental property, together with within the crawlspace.

Prosecutors stated he handled the our bodies and stays “in a means that will outrage regular household sensibilities.”

Harford’s sentencing follows years of different ugly funeral dwelling circumstances in Colorado, together with one the place the house owners have been accused of storing almost 200 our bodies in a decrepit constructing and giving households pretend cremated stays.