http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=041119&cat=news&st=newsd86f52tg1&src=ap
I’m so glad he spared the families the horror of a long, drawn-out trial. Shame the TN jail time couldn’t be consecutive, though.
All we are is dust in the… lake.
Is it wrong that this makes me laugh?
I’m imagining corpses piled up behind his house and dangling from trees in the forest.
Okay, maybe I have a weird sense of humor.
It is pretty funny in a sick sort of way. I’m one of those guys who doesn’t give a shit what happens to my rotting carcass when I die. But a lot of people do, and those people were pretty traumatized by this whole thing. Plus there’s the simple aspect of fraud, breach of contract, and one helluva health code violation.
I wonder if any of them were stuffed in old luggage. Hehehehe.
I have been following this case over time.
The fellow had delayed the trial with every possible pleading. He spent forever claiming his health was bad. So now he goes for the guilty plea. Good for him.
I hope they burn him real good. 
(What the hell kind of relationship did he have with his attorney? 'You did what? Bodies all over the property?")
BTW, he lived at home with his parents. Another tense relationship I guess.
I recall them finding photos of the bodies in his home. Were those for business purposes or… :dubious:
[QUOTE=friedo]
It is pretty funny in a sick sort of way. I’m one of those guys who doesn’t give a shit what happens to my rotting carcass when I die. But a lot of people do, and those people were pretty traumatized by this whole thing. Plus there’s the simple aspect of fraud, breach of contract, and one helluva health code violation.
[QUOTE]
It’s more funny in an absurd sort of way… how did the neighbors miss the smell?
I’m also one of those “do whatever with the remains” kinds of people, but the population this particular crematory served are poor, rural, VERY religious African Americans. Not only do they have a lot of investment in having the remains properly disposed of, but they also spent money they likely didn’t have to ensure their relative’s body was treated in a respectful manner (well, as respectful as shoving them into a cardboard box and cooking them at 1600 degrees can be). These people are experiencing a hell of a lot of guilt over their part in this mess (irrational, true, but again you have to take into account the population, as well as the irrationality of grief), and for that I hope he gets a good long time to sit and think in a cold, dark cell.
Paul, he also made numerous requests for police protection because he was afraid of what the community would do to him. I don’t think he ever got it. :wally
I bet there’s a lot of folks like me, who really doesn’t care what happens to my body, but would be pretty pissed if they, say, chucked my Dad’s body into the woods. Even though I know he was like me, and didn’t care himself what happened to his own body after he died. It’s for the comfort of the survivors, I suppose.
from the article quoted in the OP:
There’s a bit of irony in prosecuting this guy in Tennessee, which is the home of the famous body farm.
I had to read through quite a few articles on the body farm to find one that revealed where the bodies come from. According to this link…
I think 12 years in prison is reasonable.
One of my mother’s friends was dumped in that lake. Very traumatic.
I just want to know… why?! Surely dumping a body - transporting it, pushing it in, or burying it or whatever - would be way more of a pain in the ass than just burning the thing. Was it down to cost?
Although I’ve never seen anything in the news to support this, I’ve always suspected that the crematorium guy is either mentally retarded or mentally ill. I don’t think he’s evil – I think he inherited a job he is incapable of handling. I could be wrong, but it makes more sense than any other theory.
How come the funeral homes got sued?
I recall this case…I think the guy claimed that the gas company shut the gas off (nonpayment). However, this doesn’t expalin much-he actually gave the relatives cememnt powder (in place of their loved ones ashes). Let’s face it, once you are dead, that’s it.
How much does it cost (in natural gas) to cremate someone?
Yes. The funeral homes that took initial possession of the bodies did all the transporting, right to the site where he dumped them (the lake and surrounding woods are all Marsh’s family property, and by extension part of the crematory site); all he had to do was load them on a trailer or 'barrow attached to a tractor and haul them off to the preferred dumping spot. The claims early on, that have yet to be refuted, appear to be that the business was bankrupt due to the ineptitude of Marsh (he inherited the business from his ailing father). In fact, one of the most damning pieces of evidence were the financial records that show an obvious decrease in whatever power source would be used to run such an operation.
I think of my best friend, who has a setup next to his house where he does bronze casting. A single day’s casting, IIRC, uses a full tank of gas- around $300- in a matter of hours. So it’s not an extreme leap to think that running a crematory properly- at the temps necessary for as complete destruction of the remains as possible- is not an inexpensive venture.
laina_f… I don’t think he’s evil, but I definitely don’t think he’s mentally incapacitated in some way. I think he’s an utter moron with absolutely no care for anyone but himself, who thought he could get away with it. The fact that he had the foresight to subsititute cement for cremains shows that he’s got a fair amount of cognition.
Fraud and negligence. Basically they went after everyone involved- Marsh’s insurance paid his portion, and the (50? 60?) funeral homes that sent bodies to him settled up as well. I would imagine the argument was 1) if you’re doing business with someone, you should have an inkling of their business practices, and 2) the families didn’t get what they paid the funeral homes for- the cremated remains of the deceased.
The crematory was on a good bit of acreage. Plenty of land and no close neighbors.
I don’t really care all that much what is done with my body but I would be distressed to think my relatives were defrauded out of their hard-earned cash by this guy. This case struck kinda close to home because my grandfather died (in Alabama) about a month before this guy was busted. We had him cremated and scattered his ashes (illegal in Alabama) on my Grandmother’s property. They had been married 59 years (he actually died two weeks before their 60th anniversary), had known each other since first grade and she was, understandably, very upset. When the news broke, it really stressed out my entire family since it was unclear what funeral homes the bodies came from.