Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Bogus cremains offered to families hurt by crematory case

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Bogus cremains offered to families hurt by crematory case

Written by DeadGirl
Friday, 19 August 2005
Associated Press August 17, 2005 ATLANTA (AP) Ã¢â‚¬â€ It wasn't until Randall Jensen actually saw his father's rotting body on the grounds of the Tri-State Crematory that he realized that the cremains that he had received were bogus. Three years later, Jensen now knows that what he thought were the ashes of his beloved father were actually concrete dust and wood ash, yet he still plans to drive 90 miles Wednesday to retrieve the mixture anyway. "I guess you could say it's a matter of principle,'' said Jensen, of Boaz, Ala. ``Going up there and getting the urn back is a matter of closure.'' The body of Jensen's father was among 334 bodies that Ray Brent Marsh tossed in the woods or stacked in sheds around his family's crematory near the rural northwest Georgia town of Noble. Instead of receiving promised ashes of their loved ones, family members were given mixtures of sand, cement and trace remains of other bodies. To try to lay to rest the grisly saga, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is offering to return the fake cremains to the families duped by Marsh. Officials will be at the Walker County Civic Center in Rock Spring all day Wednesday, making the bogus cremains available to those family members willing to pick them up. Not surprisingly, few are expected to show. Still, authorities hope the attempt will help bring an end to the horrid crime. "For some this may be an opportunity to move on,'' said GBI agent Greg Ramey. "It's symbolic.'' The bodies were found in early 2002 after a tip led investigators to search the crematory property. In all, 187 families Ã¢â‚¬â€ most from Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama Ã¢â‚¬â€ gave investigators what they thought were the cremains of their loved ones. Testing determined that many were bogus. Marsh pleaded guilty last November to 787 counts of theft, abuse of a corpse, burial service fraud and making false statements. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The urn that Joe Oden received contained the remains of another person, not his wife. If he does make the trip from Chattanooga, Tenn., it will be to tell authorities to bury the cremains in a gravesite. "At least whoever that person was, they should be properly buried,'' Oden said. Ashes not retrieved by Sept. 16 will be released to the Walker County coroner for interment. For Jensen, retrieving the urn will particularly bring closure to his niece, who wants the dust returned as a memory of her grandfather. "It wouldn't be right for me to turn around and not go up and get it,'' he said.

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries