Corpses found at crematory discarded
By Bill Poovey
Associated Press

NOBLE, Ga. — The operator of a north Georgia crematory where dozens of corpses were found was arrested for a second time and charged with 11 more counts of theft by deception, authorities said Monday.

Ray Brent Marsh, 28, had been arrested Saturday and released from jail Sunday after posting $25,000 bond on five original charges of theft by deception. He was arrested again Sunday night.

Calls to Marsh and the crematory went unanswered Monday; voicemail boxes at both numbers were full.

Walker County chief magistrate Jerry Day said a bond hearing for Marsh would likely take place Tuesday. It had been scheduled for Monday until court officials learned Marsh did not yet have an attorney, Day said.

Authorities returned on Monday to grounds near the Tri-State Crematory, where they had recovered 97 bodies stacked in storage sheds and discarded in woods.

Officials have said they expect to find as many as 200 bodies at the crematory, including some that had likely been decomposing for up to 15 years.

Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said authorities were asking relatives of people whose bodies had been sent to the crematory for any information that might help identify their loved ones, including surgical scars and dental records.

He said investigators were continuing the search, “bagging and tagging” the bodies as they find them.

Like hundreds of residents in this hamlet, Lisa Cash can’t understand how anyone could leave her mother’s body to rot alongside piles of other human remains.

Now Cash must try to reconcile for her kids the newly uncovered body of their grandmother with the urn that they were told contained her remains.

“They don’t understand. How can granny be there and here too?” Cash said of her four children, ages 13, 12, 11 and 8. “I explained: ‘Somebody lied.”’

Investigators said Marsh told them the bodies were not cremated because the incinerator was broken.

“They just piled them on top and then piled more on top. And then they just left them,” said Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia’s chief medical examiner. “I wish we had a good explanation for this, but we don’t.”

Authorities said they recovered 97 bodies — including one infant — from storage sheds and in the woods behind the crematory. Sixteen have been identified.

“We’re just barely skimming the surface,” Sperry said. “Some of the remains are mummified.”

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