The Marsh family was known to those who knew them as an “everyday, normal, good American Family,” according to family friend, Roy Newton. Not exactly a description one would expect to hear about someone who hid hundreds of bodies within 16 acres. Ray Brent Marsh, 28, owner of a crematory in Noble, Georgia, was arrested on Saturday, Feb. 16, on five counts of theft by deception. He was released Sunday on a $25,000 bond, but rearrested that night on 11 additional counts of the same. If Marsh is convicted, each count could mean one to 15 years in prison.
A neighbor to the crematory was out walking his dog on the Friday before Marsh’s initial arrest. He discovered the first body in the pines surrounding the business. An estimated 200 bodies or more are expected to turn up by the end of the investigation.
Some of the bodies were carefully placed in sheds and concrete bunkers, but others were “just lying out in the woods,” said Sheriff Steve Wilson.
Marsh commented that the incinerator was broken and this is why he did not cremate the bodies. Instead, he stashed the cadavers along the surroundings of the crematory and gave the relatives of the dead either non-human ashes or concrete dust. “It’s been a long time, maybe years, since we’ve seen any smoke [from the incinerator],” said Jessica Johnson, relative of Marsh and neighbor to the crematory.
The crematory did not keep detailed records, so it is unknown exactly how many bodies are not accounted for. Kris Sperry, Georgia’s chief medical examiner, compared the effort of identifying the bodies to, “taking a hundred jigsaw puzzles, pouring them out on the floor and trying to do them upside down.” Some bodies may never be identified.
The investigation is not over. Federal disaster mortuary teams are expected to help support and speed up the investigation.