DENVER — Cathy Vorndran has always had an odd unspoken connection to her twin sister Christina Rosales.
Perhaps that's why she never felt right after the funeral.
“I just kind of brushed it off,” she said. “I put two and two together and realized she was trying to tell me something all along.”
Rosales’ body was found in an inoperable hearse on Feb. 6 during an eviction of a southwest Denver home where the cremated remains of as many as 30 other people were found. The tenant, a former funeral director named Miles Harford, remains wanted on suspicion of several counts.
Rosales died on Aug. 31, 2022, of natural causes. Police believe her body was inside that hearse ever since.
“Knowing that she just sat there for a year and a half breaks my heart,” Vorndran said.
The sisters contacted 9NEWS to make sure their sister’s story doesn’t get lost in the gruesome headline of how her remains were found.
“We just wanted people to know that there’s a real person behind all this tragedy,” said her older sister, Debi Schroeder. “She was an aunt, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife and she was the best.”
Vorndran said she and Rosales were mirror images of each other. They were identical twins, sharing a love of music and life. They bonded while listening to their favorite bands in the car. Vorndran’s remembers dancing to The Who in the car and glancing over at her sister making the exact same motion.
Rosales was a loving mother to two children and had a loving husband, her sisters said.
She worked her entire professional life in the cafeteria at the old Sheridan Middle School, her family said. Her sisters said she loved working with kids – often knowing students' lunch orders by heart and making sure no kids went hungry.
One of her proudest accomplishments was winning the grand prize kids’ choice award at a cooking competition at the Colorado State Fair for her Colorado Roll.
“She cared for everybody,” Vorndran said.
Rosales worked at the school from the age of 17 to her retirement in her early 50s. At age 52, her family noticed something was wrong. A doctor later confirmed it with a diagnosis: early onset dementia. Later on during her battle, another doctor confirmed she had Alzheimer’s disease, her family said.
Vorndran said her sister fought a courageous battle with the disease for 10 years – the final chapter in a nursing home. She died with her son holding her hand and her twin sister’s hand on her heart.
“It was like go, be free Chris,” her sister said. “You’re not suffering anymore.”
A year before her sister passed, Vorndran said she made arrangements for Rosales' cremation with someone Rosales knew for years because he was a student at Sheridan Middle School – Miles Harford.
“He was a student there, and he would come in and wash trays, and she would give him lunch, and whenever he was done, she’d go, 'Miles sit down, eat something, and then go back and we’ll see you tomorrow,'” Vorndran said.
Harford said he remembered her sister when they made the arrangements, Vorndran said.
“I just assumed he was going to do everything right,” she said. “He had a three-piece suit on and says ‘Cathy, I’m going to do your sister so proud because I loved her so much.’ And I was so relieved to know that I thought she’s in good hands. I wanted nothing but the best for her.”
After Rosales’ death, Vorndran said one of Harford’s assistants delivered cremated remains to her funeral service. She said the family split the remains into separate urns for everyone to remember her.
Vorndran spread her portion of her sister’s remains in the mountains.
Then this month, she got a call from Rosales’ son who was speaking to a Denver Police investigator. He put the investigator on the phone.
“He told me he had reason to believe they just found the remains of your sister, and I just said ‘What?'” she said. “And I just lost it then.”
The investigators explained that Harford was being investigated for the remains found in his home. Police told reporters Friday that Harford had accumulated significant debt with area crematories and those businesses refused to work with him. They said Harford picked up Rosales’ remains from the funeral home and kept them inside the hearse until they were discovered.
“It’s just unbelievable what he did to her,” Schroeder said. “Just left her in a hearse in the backyard. Just forgot about her.”
“How can you do that to somebody that cared for you and fed you and loved everybody?” Vorndran asked. “She didn’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that.”
Though they call it a nightmare, the sisters said there is peace in knowing they finally have their sister’s remains. Her body was taken to a funeral home in northern Colorado where a funeral director offered to cremate the remains for free, noting to the sisters that he had never seen anything like this in 51 years as a funeral director.
“She’s never going to come back,” Schroeder said. “We know that. But at least now we know she has some peace. And we do, too. We thought we had it before. But here we go again.”
Vorndran said she was listening to a recording of a concert by The Who at the time of the call from investigators. The song “I’m Free” started playing shortly after, and she started crying. Her twin sister bond kicked in again.
“I think it was her telling me I’m free, Cathy. I’m free,” she said.
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