What ever happened with that funeral home in Georgia that was in the news last year?
You know the one where they found all the bodies in out-lying buildings that were supposed to be cremated but weren’t?
I remember reading that authorities were going to drain a near-by lake to look for bodies. Did they drain it? Did they find any more bodies?
Also, what was the owner finally charged with? Has he gone to trial yet? If so was he found guilty?
MtM
As of this past February, the body count stood at 339 bodies, 218 of which had been identified. Ray Brent Marsh, the operator of the Tri State Crematory, is free awaiting trial on Federal charges as well as criminal charges in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. He complains that not enough is being done to guarantee his safety. (It seems some people get p.o.d when you take money to bury their grandma and then throw her in the woods instead.)
The most recent figure I found says he’s been indicted for 334 felony counts of “theft by deception” and 64 counts of “abuse of a dead body” (a misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $5,000 and 1 year per body, so it could add up rather quickly).
The owner of the crematory was his father, Ray Marsh, Sr., who died of a heart attack last month. He turned the place over to his son to manage in 1996 and that’s when the stockpiling of bodies started.
One incident that was on the news here that may not have gone nationwide: a tacky souvenir business sprung up around Noble for a while. One lady was ordered to cease and desist from selling T-shirts that depicted an urn, an overturned bag of cement mix, and the caption “OH WELL, IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS”. (Marsh used cement mix in the “ashes” he gave to families.)
Marsh’s motive is still unclear.
Crazy…
That’s all I needed to know. I just hate how a huge news story like this errupts than a few months later is almost swept under the rug never to be heard of again.
MtM