U.S. funeral director wanted after body of long-dead woman found at house

A former funeral home director who allegedly stored a long-dead body and other remains at his house is being hunted by police in the US state of Colorado.

Cleaners stumbled on the cremated remains, or cremains, of dozens of people after evicting Miles Harford from a property in Denver earlier this month.

When police arrived, they found a hearse on the premises containing the body of a 63-year-old woman who had died 18 months earlier, along with more boxes of cremains, Denver police said Friday.

Investigators said the body has been stored in the vehicle since her death in August 2022.

Harford, 33, owned Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services in Denver, which shut down the following month.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Harford on suspicion of abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft, the police said.

"Investigators have previously been in contact with Mr. Harford –- who is believed to be in the Denver area –- and are now working to facilitate the arrest for this warrant," a statement said.

Colorado is no stranger to rogue funeral directors.

Last year, nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in a decrepit funeral home after neighbors complained of a foul smell at the property near Colorado Springs.

And in 2018 the FBI found that directors of one establishment were selling body parts around the world, and giving grieving families cement mix instead of cremains.

The Denver Post reported that Colorado is the only state in the US in which funeral home directors do not need a license, and homes themselves are only lightly regulated.