“Acting Superior Court Judge William J. Smith signed orders dismissing all cases against the Marsh women, after the cases had been placed on the court’s dead docket in August 2006. It was announced upon the placement of the cases on the dead docket that the defense would seek dismissal after a period of two years. The orders dismissing all cases were filed in the Superior Court of Walker County on Friday, December 5, 2008.

“This was the last remaining part of the vast criminal investigation and indictments of the Tri-State Crematory controversy, where former Ray-Brent Marsh failed to cremate 334 bodies over a six-year period between 1996-2002. Mr. Tommy Ray Marsh, his wife Clara, and his daughter LaShea were not charged with any offenses relating to the uncremated bodies, but rather were charged with improperly signing death certificates from a period much earlier and less controversial than the scope of the uncremated body investigation. Ray Brent Marsh pleaded guilty to charges relating to the failure to cremate the identified bodies discovered at the former crematory site.

“The defense team for the family, lead counsel McCracken Poston and co-counsel Ron Cordova, aggressively investigated the circumstances of the days when the elder Marsh couple operated the crematory. Several witnesses were found who gave affidavits that stated that the defendants were in fact instructed by the Georgia Department of Vital Records to sign the certificates, on a line reserved for “Funeral Director,” and even in one instance when the Marsh representative did not sign an official with the state department admitted that she signed the name of Ray Marsh because they 'did not want to leave any space blank on the form.'

“This is a bittersweet milestone in this affair. These charges should have never even been brought, but you will remember there was a great public pressure to arrest each and every person with the name ‘Marsh’ who had ever had anything to do with that crematory, at any time. In the end, we were able to show that the elder Marshes and LaShea were simply following the direction of the state agency that supervised the filing of death certificates.”

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