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.
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