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CNN Live Saturday

Grisly Discovery in Northwest Georgia

Aired February 16, 2002 - 22:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: A grisly discovery in northwest Georgia is making headlines tonight. Dozens of decomposing bodies have been found near a crematorium there. Some were stacked in a shed. Others were scattered in nearby woods.

And reporter Dan Ronan of CNN affiliate WAGA in Atlanta is joining us now from there with a live report on what's going on there, Dan?

DAN RONAN, WAGA CORRESPONDENT: Well, good evening, Catherine. We're at the Centerpoint Baptist Church. This has become the staging area for the Georgia State patrol and several other police agencies. A road right in front of me. There's been a steady stream of refrigerated trucks and other equipment going on to the tri-state's crematorium, about a third of a mile down there -- down this road.

This all started with a tip to the Environmental Protection Agency. Police came in yesterday and they found this grisly discovery. At first, a handful of bodies. As they got into it, they have found more than 100 bodies. Now they fear that number may triple.

The dead did not rest peacefully here. They were not given a dignified exit. And tonight, the crematorium's owner is in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RONAN: Tonight, police say they found bodies and caskets at the Tri-state Crematorium as far back as 10 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there are caskets that are very old and have clearly been out in the weather for a decade, perhaps, because they are falling apart.

RONAN: The Marsh family has run the business for 30 years. Bret Marsh is president since 1996. Police say Tri-state accepted bodies from funeral homes in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Perhaps hundreds of bodies filled several rooms on the 16 acre complex, others in shallow graves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are more skeletal remains that we can see on the surface, others that are piled. And then there's going to be excavations of what may appear to be graves at this point in time.

RONAN: Police say Marsh told them the crematorium repeatedly had mechanical problems. Sometimes it worked, often it did not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brent Marsh was arrested and he's been booked at the Walker County Detention Facility and is being held there as we speak. He's been charged with five count of fraud.

RONAN: More charges are likely.

(on camera): Instead of receiving the cremated remains of loved ones, instead in many cases, people received sealed urns, with ashes of other people, and rocks and concrete as filler.

(voice-over): Veteran funeral directors, accustomed to dealing with death and tragedy are stunned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been associated with the funeral business since I was 16. I thought I had seen everything. I've never in my life seen anything like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RONAN: Now we are learning more about Brent Marsh, the owner of Tri-state's Crematorium. It turns out he was a community leader, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and also a committee member of the local county Department of Children and Family Services, the horror, Catherine, of what took place here just now beginning to settle in.

CALLAWAY: You know, Dan, you're right. It is a horrific story. What about the families of all of these people that the bodies that they're finding, that think that their loved ones have been cremated? Are they being notified?

RONAN: Yes, they are. In fact, behind me here at the Centerpoint Baptist Church earlier this evening, they had a meeting with law enforcement officials and as many family members as they could notify. Now bodies have been coming in from three states: Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. So it's taking a while to get the word out, but they are being in constant contact with the family and area funeral directors, some 30 funeral parlors that sent bodies here, going through the records in some cases 10 years back. And tonight, we had about 15 to 20 families who have been here, obviously very distraught about what's happened, thinking that the grief of losing a loved one was over, and now finding out that their loved one was indeed in a storage facility down the road.

CALLAWAY: You know, Dan, the story just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We understand they're asking for a state of emergency in that area.

Yes, Governor Roy Barnes did declare a state of emergency. That's a formality, more than anything else, because that will allow the state money to come in here, because there's going to be a massive amount of police that are going to be in here and environmental officials to help clean this up. So that will allow state money to come in, to help this small county get this thing going.

CALLAWAY: All right, Dan. That's Dan Ronan with CNN affiliate WAGA. Thank you, Dan.

RONAN: Thank you, Catherine.

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