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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Question of motive remains unanswered |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Thursday, 18 November 2004 |
Crematory case
By Harry R. Weber
Associated Press
ATLANTA - When former crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh pleads guilty Friday to dumping 334 bodies and passing off cement dust as their ashes, the victims' relatives and residents of a rural northwest Georgia community may still be left asking the question "Why?"
Two years after the crime in Noble shocked the nation, determining a motive remains elusive, and without a trial the answer may never be known.
"You're not ever going to learn what occurred and what motivated it unless sometime down into the future Mr. Marsh will speak up," U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy told victims' families at a hearing last month where a class-action civil lawsuit against Marsh was settled.
The families shouldn't expect an explanation with the closure of Marsh's criminal case. One of Marsh's lawyers, Ron Cordova, says it's unlikely Marsh will make a statement at his court appearance Friday beyond his plea.
However, Cordova and Marsh's aunt said Wednesday psychological problems may have contributed to what happened.
A linebacker on the football team at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Marsh left school early in the mid-1990s to help run his ailing father's Tri-State Crematory in Noble. Marsh would later take over the family business, something relatives say was not his first choice.
"I feel something went wrong with his mind, because he was up and bold and popular on the campus, and then pulled away from an institution and then got into an occupation that was solitary and depressing," said his 79-year-old aunt, Lorene Marsh.
Cordova said Marsh was part of a deeply religious family in which he was beholden to his parents when he was asked to do something.
Robert Smalley, a lawyer who represented plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said money could have been a motive as well. He said his investigation found that not enough propane was purchased to run the crematory machine, even though Marsh had been paid.
Marsh's attorney disputed a financial motive. Cordova said that of the 999 corpses that were sent to Marsh, 665 of them were cremated. The roughly $90,000 he received over five years for the cremations he didn't perform was spent on the everyday needs of his family, the lawyer said.
Marsh was by no means living luxuriously. At the time of his arrest, he was living with his wife and newborn girl in a one-story stone house near the crematory. These days, out on bail and under house arrest, Marsh is living with his mother, Clara.
Reached at home Wednesday, Clara Marsh said her son was out and not available for an interview. Asked about her feelings in the wake of her son's expected guilty plea, she turned to her faith. "Whatever is going on in the world out there as far as I'm concerned is all in God's hands, and he will handle it however he chooses to," Clara Marsh said. "And believe me, he will."
The Marsh case isn't the only time someone's been accused of taking money for cremations and not performing the work. Toledo, Ohio, funeral home operator Henry Harden pleaded no contest to theft and abuse of corpse charges last year, after eight decomposing bodies he was supposed to have cremated were found in his building.
Marsh also is charged in Tennessee with six felony counts of abuse of a corpse. He is accused of taking bodies to the crematory, then returning to Bradley County funeral homes with what were purported to be those cremated human remains. In some cases, the urns held cement dust.
Tennessee prosecutor Shari Young said Wednesday Marsh is expected to plead guilty to the Bradley County charges by the end of the year. As part of his agreement in Georgia, the two prison sentences will run concurrently.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said some in law enforcement are still wondering why Marsh did what he's accused of doing.
"The only person who has the answer isn't talking to us," Bankhead said.
http://onlineathens.com/stories/111804/new_20041118020.shtml |
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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
Quote Repository
“Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.” Oscar Wilde
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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