http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/02/26/cr...ses/index.html
Crematory operator faces 100 new counts
Judge sets bond for Marsh
February 27, 2002 Posted: 7:28 AM EST (1228 GMT)
LAFAYETTE, Georgia (CNN) -- Authorities Tuesday charged Ray Brent Marsh, the crematory operator accused of dumping bodies on his northwest Georgia property, with 100 new counts of theft by deception, court officials said.
Marsh, 28, was charged with two counts for each of 50 bodies that have been identified since his arrest -- one accusing him of taking money for cremations that were not performed and another accusing him of giving fake remains back to the families.
Marsh already was being held in the Walker County Jail on 16 counts of theft by deception -- one count for each of the bodies found when he was previously charged.
Walker County Chief Magistrate Judge William J. Day set a $100,000 bond for Marsh on Tuesday, ruling he was not a flight risk, or a threat to the community and was unlikely to commit additional felonies or try to intimidate witnesses in the case.
The Walker County Sheriff's Department said Marsh had not yet posted bail, and remains in custody.
Concerned families can contact the Georgia Emergency Management Agency
1-888-887-1845
http://www.gema.state.ga.us/
Search teams excavating the grounds of Tri-State Crematory have recovered 339 bodies, according to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Of those, 74 have been identified and 43 have been returned to their families.
Many of those bodies -- some dating back as long as three years ago -- were identified by toe tags or by hospital wristbands still on them.
Veteran investigators have described the 16-acre site as one of the most gruesome they have ever seen, with the bodies disposed of on the property with no regard to the dead -- some stacked 10 high in buildings, others left unburied in the woods and at least one still in the back of a broken-down hearse.
Residents had paid to fish in Marsh's lake
Authorities plan to drain a lake on the property where they fear the crematory operator may have dumped even more bodies. They performed environmental tests Monday to make sure it is safe.
"We've got to determine all of the ramifications of draining the lake before we do it," an official with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency told CNN.
The lake empties into a reservoir that is used for drinking water. Preliminary tests have shown no dangerous bacteria in the reservoir.
A detailed report on the lake and the environmental impact of it is expected Wednesday, sources familiar with the investigation said.
According to neighbors, Marsh used to charge people a small fee to fish in the lake, but in recent years stopped allowing anyone to fish there. One neighbor said Marsh became impatient with people who entered the property to fish, often yelling at them.
Thirty funeral homes in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee had sent bodies to the crematory, Walker County Coroner Dewayne Wilson said. The state board of funeral directors asked families who used those funeral homes to ask whether their loved ones' bodies had been taken to the crematory.
Legal experts said the facility escaped state regulation because it did not do business directly with the public, but worked through funeral homes instead.
More than 500 people with 43 different government agencies -- state, local and federal -- are working on the clean-up, which could last more than eight months, authorities have said.
-- CNN Correspondent Art Harris contributed to this report.
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