On February 15, 2002, police were called to the Tri-State Crematory. The establishment’s primary purpose was to cremate the dead in Noble, Georgia. Investigators were called numerous times over the preceding two years. Complaints included reports of corpses being strewn about the property. While initial calls in 2000 and 2001 yielded no change, police could no longer ignore the allegations after the Environmental Protection Agency in nearby Atlanta became involved. When Walker County Sheriff Department officers finally arrived at the property on February 15th they made the terrible, horror movie-esque discovery of over 300 bodies not cremated, but strewn about in a bizarre display. So, what happened at Tri-State?
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Originally founded by Tommy Marsh in the 1970s, Tri-State Crematory provided corpse services for Georgia and surrounding states Alabama and Tennessee. Marsh was a respected member of the community. The community praised Marsh for establishing Tri-State Crematory. The facility gave death service access to people who had not had it previously. After a couple decades of running the facility, he handed the business to his son, Ray Brent Marsh. The younger Mr. Marsh handled day-to-day operations from then on.
The Community Lodges Complaints Against The Tri-State Crematory
During his tenure at Tri-State Crematory, Ray took in 2,000 bodies. The operation appeared sound from the outside looking in. The first red flag for law enforcement came in October of 2000. This ordeal involved a gas man observing bodies irresponsibly scattered around the building. However, the Walker County Sheriff’s Department did not find this an issue at the time. So law enforcement ignored the report. A year later, in November of 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta received a tip from an unknown source. The source informed the EPA there were body parts in the woods surrounding Tri-State Crematory. Walker County Sheriff’s Office fielded more reports of the ongoing issues with the facility. But they reportedly conducted a routine check and found nothing.
Finally, The EPA Investigates Claims of Scandalous Activity at the Tri-State Crematory
Barely three months later, the EPA learned about an uncovered human bone on the property. EPA agents arrived on the scene, finding a skull and more human bones scattered in the woods. This prompted the arrival of police on February 15th, 2002. EPA personnel learned a truck driver who delivered propane to Tri-State Crematory had called the police twice to report bodies being scattered around.
The investigation of February 15th found 339 un-cremated bodies. There were many more corpses in advanced stages of decomposition. Corpses lay in boxeswith their fluids leaking onto the floor. Some were in their Sunday best, while others were still in hospital gowns. There was one body lying halfway inside the crematory oven, another lying inside a coffin, and yet another draped across a wooden crate with the skeleton of a baby at its feet.
The ordeal quickly became a full-on nightmare. Matters further escalated when families learned Tri-State sent them cement dust, not ashes. Additionally, after the removal of the bodies, only 226 were identifiable. This meant that almost 100 of the victims remain unidentified.
An Arrest
Law enforcement arrested Ray Marsh for his crimes. The court charged Marsh with 787 criminal counts, including theft by deception, abusing a corpse, fraud relating to the burial services he had promised, and fraud pertaining to his false statements. Marsh pled guilty to his crimes. The court imposed a sentence of twelve years in prison (he got out in June of 2016). The Marsh Family also faced numerous civil litigation suits that resulted in millions paid to families of their victims. However, even at his sentencing hearing, Ray reportedly said that he could not give any answers why.
While Marsh initially told law enforcement the oven wasn’t working properly, that was false. In reality, Tri-State Crematory disposed of the majority of the 2,000 corpses sent there and properly disposed of and the ashes, which were sent to their families. There was another initial theory that Ray was lazy, so rather than burn the corpses properly, he would just wheel them off to another room and dump them. Yet, that seems highly implausible since a corpse would literally be dead weight. Transpiring it from a wheeled cart to the oven would be simpler than dragging them about the property.
Five years after the initial arrest, Marsh’s lawyers had him undergo physiological tests. The tests determined Ray was a victim of mercury poisoning. This is entirely plausible since, when cremating bodies with fillings, the process releases mercury into the air. But this isn’t usually a problem with good ventilation. But, the ventilation system at Tri-State Crematory was dysfunctional. Accordingly, both Ray and his father were likely exposed to toxic mercury vapors, leaving them with Mad Hatters Disease.
Mad Hatter’s Disease and its Role in the Scandal at The Tri-State Crematory
Mad Hatters Diseases, really called Erethism, is a neurological disorder that takes a devastating effect on the central nervous system and cognitive function. Old English hat makers who were exposed to mercury coined the term. So, this means while Ray was working at Tri-State Crematory he endured exposure to unsafe levels of mercury. He seemed to run the establishment like his own grotesque wonderland by leaving the bodies around the property in various states.
The scandal at the Tri-State Crematory rocked the death industry as many other professionals claimed that this was the unfortunate result of the lack of regulation and inspection. The lack of oversight comes thanks in large part to a loophole in Georgia state law. Since Tri-State Crematory only dealt with funeral homes they could operate without a license and avoid a yearly state inspection. However, in the aftermath of the scandal Georgia changed its laws and most states around the country amended their own to avoid another horrific disaster like Tri-State Crematory.
Note: 2012 marks the release of a film based on the incident at the Tri-State Crematory. Ut’s called Sahkanaga. You can check out here.
Updated June 1, 2024
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