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Crematory
operator faces more charges LaFAYETTE, Ga. — Authorities filed 100 more criminal charges Tuesday against the operator of a crematory where hundreds of corpses have been discovered. Ray Brent Marsh already faced 16 counts of theft by deception for allegedly taking money for cremations he never performed at Tri-State Crematory. The 100 additional theft by deception charges were filed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and issued in a warrant by Walker County Magistrate Judge Shelia Thompson. The new counts were connected to 50 of the corpses found at Tri-State. For each body, one count was filed for taking money from the families and another for failing to give the ashes to the families, officials said. So far, 331 corpses have been found on the crematory grounds. Only 70 of the bodies have been identified. The latest charges were filed just hours after a separate judge ruled Marsh could leave jail on $100,000 bond on the original 16 theft charges. Marsh was still in jail Tuesday afternoon and could be arrested again if he makes bail. Meanwhile, recovery workers began another day of clear-cutting the 16-acre crematory grounds. Authorities have said it could be late summer before all the bodies are identified. Some workers are growing weary and occasionally sick as the emotional toll mounts. “Everybody involved in this process, from the word go, is suffering some kind of emotional strain,” said David Ashburn, the Walker County emergency director. “It’s things that you and I were never meant to be exposed to.” Officials estimated they had searched only three or four acres of the Tri-State grounds, which comprise at least eight acres, excluding buildings and a small lake. Authorities are working on a plan to drain the lake. Family members lined up Monday to give blood samples, hoping their DNA would help investigators identify more bodies. Donating blood for a DNA test meant fresh grief for Elaine Bray of Chattanooga, Tenn., who arrived at the county civic center down the road from Tri-State with a mug of small pebbles — part of which she thought were the remains of her brother, who died four years ago. “All I wanted to do is give him a proper death,” she said. “This is what I got.” Eddie Young of Crystal River, Fla., said he hoped DNA testing might tell him for sure whether the body of his mother, who died in November, was left to decompose on the grounds of the crematory. |
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