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CNN Sunday Morning

Dead Bodies Found at a Crematorium in Georgia

Aired February 17, 2002 - 11:39   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go back now to one of our other stories that we tried to bring you earlier with Art Harris in northeast Georgia, where a very grisly discovery has been made at a crematorium there. Let's go to Art now.

Art, can you hear us OK now?

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka. Here in rural Walker County, Georgia, authorities have discovered 85 bodies that were supposed to have been buried or cremated, spread about 16 acres of a crematorium, very close by. At the moment, they are still looking for other bodies and body parts. They expect the number of bodies to rise to about 200, and have forensic experts on the scene.

At the moment, GEMA, the Georgia Emergency Management Association agency is bringing in refrigerated vans, body bags, and any other equipment needed to try to identify the bodies on the ground.

This has been very upsetting to the many grieving relatives who thought their family members and loved ones had been put to rest as they had indicated they wanted to be, and now find that they were not.

Right now, we have with us Ray Cash from Chattanooga, Tennessee. His mother-in-law he though was cremated after she died in late December, and he learned that, in fact, she was not. Ray, why are you here and how did you find out?

RUSTY CASH, RESIDENT: OK, my name is Rusty Cash. Yesterday, I called the funeral home and asked Turner Funeral Home, I said, "are we - do we need to check into this?" And he said, "well it's a good possibility." He said that if hears anything, that he'll call us. Well about three or fours later, that did happen.

They called us and said that your mother is on the property. What I have in my house is not your mother.

HARRIS: You had here, you thought, at home?

CASH: Yes, I thought. I thought that she was already cremated and at home. It's been what, six, seven weeks ago of her funeral, and what they gave us was not Norma Hutton (ph).

HARRIS: Now, you brought the urn here, why?

CASH: The GBI asked me to because they can see if it is a body or not, and if it's not, they can see what it was or what it may be.

HARRIS: How is your wife holding up? This is her mother.

CASH: Yes, it was her mother. Her name is Lisa Cash, and last night she was just couldn't imagine how somebody could, I mean she was just outraged. She was very troubled with this.

HARRIS: Rusty is one of many, many loved ones who are here, trying to find out why and what happened in the process of transporting bodies to a crematorium that was supposed to dispose of them.

And right behind us, we have many other families arriving for grief counseling. There will be a press conference at 2:00 with law enforcement, trying to explain what went wrong, and in the words of one trooper who found the bodies and skulls and body parts, "it's something that is a scene out of a real-life Stephen King novel." Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much, Art Harris. It's going to be a difficult time for an awful lot of family members out there.

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