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BEYOND MORBID!

alledanalledan Member Posts: 19,541
edited February 2002 in General Discussion
NOBLE, Georgia (CNN) -- The grounds of a northwest Georgia crematory here may hold as many as 200 bodies left unburied and not cremated by the facility's operator, authorities said Sunday. Kris Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner, said each of the five burial vaults found at the crematory contain about 30 bodies. In addition, "at least four or five" other bodies have been identified in the nearby woods, Sperry said. "Altogether, I'd say we know of about 200 bodies," he said. Ray Brent Marsh, 28, the son of the crematory's owners, was arrested Saturday and charged with theft by deception after authorities discovered about 80 unburied bodies and body parts in sheds and strewn on the crematory grounds. Marsh told investigators the facility's incinerator had not worked for some time, said John Bankhead, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman. Noble is a small town tucked into the extreme northwest corner of Georgia near the Tennessee and Alabama borders. It is about 85 miles northwest of Atlanta. "There is no rational or logical explanation for this, and I'm about to the point of stopping trying because I can't comprehend it," Sperry said. "I can't process it and make any real sense out of it." He said 92 sets of remains have been recovered and tagged, with 16 positively identified. Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes met with "shocked and angry" relatives of the dead Sunday. Barnes promised to support legislation placing crematories under the same state regulations as funeral homes. "This should not happen again," he said. Marsh, 28, took over the business from his ailing father in the mid-1990s. Barnes issued an emergency declaration Saturday authorizing state assistance to local investigators. "We will take whatever resources are necessary from a state basis to identify the bodies, help in the investigation and help in the prosecution of those who are responsible," he said. Veteran cops shaken by sceneMarsh's mother and father lived on the grounds of the Tri-State Crematory but may not have known about the bodies, Bankhead said. Marsh has run the business since taking over from his father, who is bedridden, in the mid-1990s. A nearby resident called the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Atlanta office Friday about the dumped remains. The crematory is on 16 acres that includes a large lake and is surrounded by a residential neighborhood: It was built before the county passed zoning laws, said Lisa Ray, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Several veteran law enforcement officers said they were shaken by the grisly scene. "No one has ever encountered a scene like this," said Assistant GBI Director Vernon Keenan. Counselors were called in to help family members, few of whom had ever heard of the crematory. One woman said she believed the urn she had been told contained the ashes of her dead mother probably contained concrete. Investigators remove bodies found behind a northwest Georgia crematory. "We are telling the families that had relatives cremated to call the funeral homes and ask them, 'Were their relatives sent to the place?'" Bankhead said. Authorities quickly identified some of the bodies as a result of a 1994 law requiring bodies be identified before burial or cremation. Legislators passed the law after floods in south Georgia caused dozens of caskets to rise from cemeteries and float away, Ray said. Area funeral directors have been enlisted to help identify the bodies. But it is unlikely all the bodies and body parts will be identified, Ray said. Some of them had no identification, indicating they died before the 1994 law.

Comments

  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    At the risk of sounding like a horrible *, what difference does it make what happens to dead people?Obviously it's a very poor idea to toss bodies hither and thither in the woods, and charging someone for a cremation which did not occur is fraud, simple as that. Defrauding a grieving relative for financial gain is utterly rotten, to be sure.But the dead guy certainly doesnt know the difference. As for his relatives, other than the financial aspect, I dont quite understand what difference it makes.They get an urn with ashes in it, and it helps them deal with their grief. The fact that it doesnt contain the ashes of the dead person is more a matter of fraud than any deep moral rotten-ness to me.My body is a machine which transports my soul around so it can learn wisdom from many places. Once it's used up, it's used up. I dont plan on having memorial services for any of my cars when they expire, even though they served much the same purpose as a body does.Since we're exploring morbidity here, I plan on donating every organ that might be useful for transplant. After that, they'll be a small memorial service (sans my casket), and the rest of me will be fed to wolves somewhere. Hopefully they'll make some use of it, cause it sure aint doing any good sitting in the ground, or in an urn on someone's mantle.
  • sig-mansig-man Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Dang, talk about procrastination....
  • Bushy ARBushy AR Member Posts: 564 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bullseye...I am also an organ donor so what is left will mean little.Although I recently found out that my plan to spread the ashes of what is left into the river I grew up on has been outlawed.Have to come up with something else I guess.Must be an environmental problem...go figure!
  • guns-n-painthorsesguns-n-painthorses Member Posts: 6,462 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Southern Pride!
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    I will donate all of my transplantable organs, which will presumably leave such useless organs as my intestines, lungs, skin and bones.There is a religious sect in India that owns several vulture aviaries, designed for cadavers. A body placed in the aviary will be stripped totally clean in under 10 minutes.I've always desired to have every bit of my corpus serve some purpose, so the idea of giving a hungry vulture something to eat seems somewhat appealing to me.I'm certainly not going to have any use for my body after I'm dead.And I think it's ridiculous that more people dont donate their organs after death. Other than religious reasons, why the hell wouldnt you?
  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    Back in the early eighties I used to hang out with a guy,who`s dad owned a funeral home,with crematory.He would take big boxes of accumulated ashes out off Alligator Ally,and dump them in the canal.I asked him about the families getting them,he said there is a lot more than an ern full per body..."besides,you don`t think they actually get ashes of their relative,do ya?...we just dip into one of these boxes.They get ashes from hundreds of people,all mixed up"..218
  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Beekeep218.....You knocked my socks off with that one! I mean I guess it makes sense but I sure as hell thought those urns were handled with much greater respect than apparently they are. Beach
  • RugerNinerRugerNiner Member Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I donated my Brain to Science and they Returned it.
    Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
    Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
    NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
  • nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,078 ******
    edited November -1
    Bullzeye: There are laws governing what can and must and must not be done with the dead. Abuse of a corpse is a felony in most states.That is where the difference is, not with the dead, for as you pointed out, they are beyond caring, but with the cavalier violation of the law and the trust of the consumer.
    Certified SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of the General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the premier gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net Jesus is Lord!
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    Good point.I just think people in America are unduly concerned (obsessed might be a better word) with what happens to their body after they die.People plan out their funerals, wakes, burial/cremation arrangements, and whatnot before they crack 40. I've even known a few vain individuals who wrote their own eulogy... *string music from Psycho plays*People sit and fret and squirm over what's gonna happen to their body after their dead. But the bottom line remains: YOU'RE DEAD! YOU WONT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!I think it's a byproduct of America's overall obsession with vanity and control. Like people are deeply afraid that if they arent there to tell people what to do with THEIR OWN DEAD BODY, they might not look chic and vogue and regal enough at their own freakin' funeral.I think I should build some vulture aviaries in America. $10 a stiff's my price. You get to keep the bones, and my vultures get fed.
  • RUGERNUT3RUGERNUT3 Member Posts: 247 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hey Bullseye...your right...what differance DOES it make? If your mom, dad or any close relatives die any time soon..just ship em to me. I'm sure I can find some use for theirbodies...practice my "deadmans carry"...maybe bullet performance on human tissue...after all..WHAT differance does it make to them..they would be dead...right???AGAINST THE LAW..AGAINST HUMAN DIGNITY.BUD..
  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    Beach,I went into the room,next to the crematory,where they kept the ashes..there were shelves,with metal plates,and bolts and so forth,everywhere.I never realised how many people have metal plates,and such!.218
  • nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,078 ******
    edited November -1
    At 18, I pretty much thought the way Bullzeye does. I thought funerals were an obscene waste of money.20 years later I found my attitude had changed. His will too.
    Certified SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of the General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the premier gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net Jesus is Lord!
  • Bushy ARBushy AR Member Posts: 564 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sure Nunn,$5,000 services and $10,000 coffins are not obscene? What a joke! It is to laugh HAR-DE-HAR-HAR!! For what reason should I not think that a little excessive?
  • timberbeasttimberbeast Member Posts: 1,738 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think there is sanctity and respect to be given to a deceased human body. Bullz, on the one hand, you've talked about how the American Indians said prayers over deceased non-human animals, and then you say one shouldn't care about what happens to a human's body, because, after all, they are dead. Think about those conflicting statements! Reconcile them within your mind.I worked from 1975 to 1977 at Valhalla Memorial Park in Milwaukee, a large cemetery which also has a crematorium. Buried a lot of people and cremated several hundred. As far as "ashes" not being able to fit into an urn, there are actually no "ashes" left after a cremation. There are simply bone fragments, melted glasses, melted fillings, steel hip joints (which get placed upon a shelf), melted rings, diamonds, and other scrap metals, which are placed into the box sent to the funeral director for placement into the urn, or plastic box the deceased's kin desire. The bone fragments are placed into a mortar and pestle and crushed into smaller fragments which are then placed into the box as well. The process itself is different depending upon whether a steel or wooden coffin (or a cardboard box) is the method of delivery, and I won't go into it, except to say it is not like you see in movies (at least not in this state). Where I worked, all of the "ashes" fit easily into the box, and none were ever mixed with those of others. I cannot say what happened at the funeral home, or if this is still the case.Personally, I don't want my "shell" disrespected after my death. It's been pretty good to me so far....
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    I'll reiterate:You'll be dead, so what will it matter whether they treat you great or saw off your limbs and toss you in the furnace?You will not know the difference. No way, no how.
  • edharoldedharold Member Posts: 465 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree with Bullzeye. That's why people shoud plan their own disposal. If you don't your children when faced with a recent tragedy are in a very emotional state and vulnerable to the vultures selling funerals, coffins, burial lots, etc. As my organs are to old to do anyone any good, I've directed that when I pass over, they immediately creamate me, put a few ashed in a corner of the family plot. If the family decided to have a memorial service, I have set aside funds to yher pay travel costs of far off members, and instructed (for what ever that is worth) that they have a good family gathering. Life, after all, is still for the living.[This message has been edited by edharold (edited 02-18-2002).]
  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    This all sounds to me like a clear-cut case of racial discrimination. Why, that ol' boy just looks like an honest, upstanding businessman.
    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
  • sig-mansig-man Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Back home in Knoxville Tn. there was this place next to the University of Tennessee Hospital where they would stuff people in car trunks and leave them sit out on the ground or bury them in shallow graves, stuff like that to study the decomposition rate in different senarios, we used to go there when we were in High School and jump the fences and look around, pretty gross stuff, they have since increased the fence highth and installed cameras,getting back to the point, if you donated your body to the study program they would use it and when they were done they would cremate the remains and ship them to the next of kin or family members, seems that would be a sure way to get the correct remains...
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