Posted on 02/18/2002 12:43:43 PM PST by kattracks
NOBLE, Ga. (Reuters) - The owner of a Georgia crematory where more than 100 unburied bodies were found stacked like firewood in storage sheds and abandoned in the nearby woods has been arrested and jailed for a second time, authorities said on Monday.
Ray Brent Marsh, who runs the Tri-State Crematory in the rural northwest Georgia town of Noble, was charged with 11 counts of theft by deception for allegedly taking payment for cremations that were never performed, said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The charges were in addition to the five counts of theft that Marsh, 28, was charged with Saturday when he was first arrested following an initial search of the sprawling 16-acre crematory grounds.
Marsh, who originally told investigators the crematory's incinerator had not been working, was released Sunday after posting a $25,000 bond. He was scheduled to appear in court in a second bond hearing on Monday afternoon.
The new arrest came as state and local police intensified their search for human remains at the Tri-State Crematory, located about 85 miles northwest of Atlanta.
Bankhead said 118 unburied bodies in varying states of decomposition had been discovered on the grounds of the crematory, but added that investigators expected the final count to be closer to 300.
Police expect to find more bodies when they open a number of crematory vaults. One vault opened on Sunday contained more than 20 bodies. There are also plans to dredge a lake near the crematory as part of the search.
A makeshift morgue has been set up at the crematory and medical examiners have positively identified 21 of the bodies, but their efforts have been stymied by the poor condition of some of the remains, which may date back as far as 20 years.
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said authorities were asking relatives of those who had been sent to the crematory to provide dental records and other information that might help in the identification process.
'DEVASTATING FOR THE FAMILIES'
The Tri-State Crematory has been in business for about 30 years and routinely received bodies from funeral homes in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Marsh has run the business since taking over from his father in the 1990s.
Police suspect the crematory may have foregoing cremations for years and passing off wood chips and other substances as ashes to grieving relatives throughout the region.
Some of those same relatives now gather daily at a local civic center to learn the true fate of their loved ones. Many carry the urns that they once thought held the ashes of a deceased family member.
"It's devastating for the families who recently lost loved ones and also for those who thought everything was taken care of years ago," said Lisa Ray, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which is providing grief counselors to the family members.
Ray added that health officials were testing water samples in the area to ensure that there had been no contamination from the decomposing remains. Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes has declared a state of emergency in the county, enabling it to receive funding for the cleanup.
Police started investigating the crematory, which is located on land surrounding a residential neighborhood, after an area resident reported finding a human skull late last week in the surrounding woods.
The discovery of the corpses at the crematory came just months after a funeral company was accused in a Florida lawsuit of digging up bodies and dumping them in the woods to make room for new burials.
Good, he's a scumbag.
Uh, maybe they should send divers down first to spot the obvious remains and recover them relatively intact. Dredging will scatter and mix everything.
That said, it's too bad that we don't share the Klingon philosophy regarding mortal remains. It would save a lot of anguish.
I hope the victims sue him up the wazoo for their mental anguish.
You had to drag the Klingons into this, didn't you?! :)
It was due an update, thanks for making it more current KAT.
Smile Low Oil
I think the funniest Saturday Night Live I ever saw was the one where Shatner is addressing a Star Trek convention and tells the audience "For God's sake, move out of your parents basements and get a life! You've turned an enjoyable little job I had for a few years into a complete waste of time!"
Actually funeral homes often subcontracted this work out due to the high costs of building ones own crematoriums. It was one of the first in the area and had a mostly white cliental. I now know of three white people in my area that used this service. They are very angry now. I am about 55 miles away.
Ok. I'll admit it. You piqued my curiosity. Any chance you might enlighten us non-trekkies?
I am sure in that business they have ways to control smell. It looks like to me, he used the sheds to dry out the bodies, thus the smell first before he strew them across the woods. He had an assembly line method in a sick way.
For the love of God, please don't entice the trekkies! I've seen a thread on traffic laws that mutated into an argument over how old was Spock when he joined star fleet.
Thanks for mentioning that, Someone mentioned that very event on another thread dealing with this. I had not heard of it before.
I guess there is nothing new up under the sun. This Tri-state crematory was about the same as a mortuary I guess, since he did not do what he was suppost to.
Smile
Low Oil
PETA's going to be all over this one. What are the poor critters in the woods going to eat now? And how about the starving crows?
Gotta wonder about the mentality of people that they would do this to the dead. (At least one guy stated that he didn't want the dead to be 'lonely')
Conservative: "The crematorium was broken...
First, I notified all burial companies that I could not take any more bodies at this time.
Second, I called the repair shop, used some of my profits, and had the "ovens" fixed.
Finally, I notified all burial companies that I was again open for business.
I sure hope that the bodies weren't used for other purposes, such as Satanic cult-type stuff. Or maybe Frankenstein's lab is up here.
I work just over the mountain from this mess and I'm sure more than a few of my co-workers will be affected.
I would hope that the State of Georgia inspects funeral homes and crematoria, but I wonder where they were the last 20 years or so.
Seeing that this came soon after a Fl Funeral Home was Exhuming remains, probably after what they considered a sufficient time had elapsed to exclude survivors, we may be seeing the tip of a huge iceberg here. How many people actually check to see if x number of people are actually interred under a headstone with x number of names on it? After a certain number of years, the situation is obvious, nobody is alive who would remember, and unless the family is caring, and visits gravesites on a regular basis, this could be the opening of a huge "recycling" operation.
This guy is obviously incapable of rational thought. Didn't ANY of the families want the cremains back? If so, what, or should I say WHO did they get?
Now, the Funeral Service industry has been under attack for some time now, for price gouging, the Embalming fiasco (claiming that Embalming was necessary under law when it was not), some local establishments here near Philly got nailed reusing caskets, when cremation was desired. (If I seem somewhat knowlegeable, I worked in Funeral Service during the time I was in High School, actually had thought about going to Mortuary College (heck, the Funeral Director was going to pay the whole 9 yards), (should have, pays a heck of a lot better than Engineering ;-). This is pretty much the first time I have heard of fraud at one location on this particular scale.
What is particularly disturbing to me, is the huge scale of this operation. Why didn't anyone SMELL anything. When one had that many bodies simply exposed to the elements, you are going to get that "death odor" that simply can't be mistaken for anything else. Allowing for the fact that there are open spaces in GA, a lot more than here in PA, and a "puppy mill" was recently uncovered not far from where this happened, with dogs bred and kept in unspeakable conditions.
As I recall, after all the dogs were removed,(most were saved). The place had to be burned flat to "cauterize" what was left. Point being, nobody smelled that one either, so maybe we are talking about being so far removed from a road, or residences, nobody noticed, or more likely, they did, but for one reason or another didn't say anything.
Gotta check for Jimmy Hoffa, though (sorry, couldn't resist that).
Keep the Faith for Freedom
MAY GOD BLESS AND PROTECT THIS HONORABLE REPUBLIC BOTH FROM THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGERS EXISTING BOTH WITHIN AND OUTSIDE ITS BORDERS.
Greg
Wonder if the catfish taste different from that lake?
I called the number and got: "Mailbox for...Marsh Vault...is full."
Ugh. Full of what?
Why do I *KNOW* you have been to Star Trek Conventions wearing Spock Ears and buying copies of the Klingon Dictionary?
Why do I simply KNOW it????
BTW, do NOT watch the episode he quoted from with a bunch of drunk Marine NCOs. Worf gives a soliquiy on the virtues of the warrior that gets drunken jarheads to shout "Amen! Preach it brother Worf!"
I have a fireplace full of ashes, a large Tiffany box and a very wicked idea involving the postal service and 362 Center Point Road, La Fayette, GA 30728.
Conservative: "The crematorium was broken... First, I notified all burial companies that I could not take any more bodies at this time. Second, I called the repair shop, used some of my profits, and had the "ovens" fixed. Finally, I notified all burial companies that I was again open for business."
Socialist: "The crematorium was broken...so I'll wait until a bureaucrat sends me a government cheque to subsidize a replacement."
Fascist: "The crematorium was broken...because I was burning too many of my neighbours.
Anarchist: "The crematorium was broken...so I kidnapped my congressman and blew it up with him inside."
Libertarian: see Conservative
I happen to enjoy watching the show (I never really got into DS9 (too static) or ST:V (too effeminate). Haven't seen the newest one, but NexGen was always my favorite.
I simply watched the program, and happen to remember the plots, including seeing the deaths of Klingons and Worf's explanation of Klingon philosophy vis-a-vis burial customs.
Actually, though an avid SF fan, I have never been to a convention of any kind. Those people are too weird. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying the genre.
Gotta love Worf! (I particularly liked his comment to Jordy regarding Klingon romance rituals. "The male reads love poetry, and the female throws heavy objects!" ST:NG really knew how to laugh at itself).
Top reason why I really love ST:NG: The characters. Character development was refined to a tee with that program. Little wonder, since they used some of the best stage actors in world in the series.
Stewart was of course a classical actor with stunning credentials on the British stage, Brent Spiner has appeared on Broadway, most particularly in Sunday in the Park with George, and Frakes is also a veteran of Broadway.
Very true, I'm sure he expected some tax dollars to come his way to get the crematorium fixed.
I think Dorn would play Richard perfectly.
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