Over 20 years ago, bodies were left outside a NW Georgia crematorium. A new podcast explores why

Caption

GBI agents in 2002 search for bodies on the property of Tri-State Crematorium in Noble, Ga.

Credit: Walker County Sheriff's Office

More than two decades ago, a crematorium owner in the Northwest Georgia town of Noble was accused of allowing human bodies to decay at his facility. Brent Marsh owned Tri-State Crematorium serving Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, where investigators found 339 bodies in various states of decay in and around his property — people whose family members thought they had been cremated. Years later, questions remain about how this happened. Shaun Raviv set out to answer those questions. He's an independent journalist whose podcast, Noble, documents his investigation. He spoke with GPB’s Peter Biello.

Peter Biello: And note to listeners: Like the podcast itself, this conversation may contain descriptions of decay that some listeners may find disturbing. So, Shawn, let's start at the beginning. The first indication that something was amiss at Tri-State Crematorium came from a propane delivery guy who was looking for the tank at the property and spotted what he thought were body parts on the property. Can you tell us what happened?

Shaun Raviv: Sure. It was a man named Gerald Cook, and he was just delivering propane like he did for a living. He had sort of always avoided this route, as did some of his coworkers. But, that day in February 2002, he was assigned to go to the crematory to drop off propane. And when he got there, there was no one there. No one heard his truck arrive. And so we went in to look for the tank. And while looking for the tank, he saw something else. He saw what looked like human body parts.

Peter Biello: When investigators did turn up and find bodies at the property and then confront Brent Marsh about it, it wasn't really a dramatic conflict, was it?

Shaun Raviv: It wasn't dramatic because most people there knew each other. The sort of primary investigators, the sheriff, they knew Brent Marsh. They knew him personally. They knew him from around town, kids going to school together, that kind of thing. It's a very, very tight-knit area.

Peter Biello: What did he say, at the time, when police said, "This is a mess. You've got bodies everywhere. How do you explain this?"

Shaun Raviv: The short answer is he didn't say much. Slightly longer answer is that he said he didn't know about it. He didn't know what was going on at first.

Peter Biello: He's eventually arrested and he gets a lawyer. The lawyer is McCracken Poston. Now, this might be a familiar name to some of our listeners. We had McCracken Poston on GPB talking about his book Zenith Man. So he's the kind of lawyer who defends people who aren't necessarily very popular. And that was the case for Marsh at the time. He was widely condemned in the community for what the press was now portraying as a grisly scene. Why did McCracken Poston want to defend him?

Shaun Raviv: He had a history with the family. He knew Brent Marsh's father, who is the guy who had started the crematory. He liked them. And he — he saw all the news reports. He saw how the community was reacting and didn't feel like it was all justified.

Peter Biello: Why?

Shaun Raviv: I think because he thought it was more complicated than it looked. And I think that's sort of — he's the kind of guy who looks for complicated factors within seemingly obvious cases. And he saw something that other people didn't see.

Peter Biello: So investigators went to work, looking for as many bodies as they could find. They found 339 bodies when all was said and done. But there may have been more. And I want to play a voice from one of the episodes. This is Terry Crawford. ... She was working on the government response, and she spoke about the moment when the state was denied FEMA funds to assist with the identification, which was getting very costly, right? Because.some of the remains were co-mingled, requiring DNA testing to figure out who these people were. And she spoke about the moment the state pulled out of the effort.

Terry Crawford: It was heartbreaking. So I knew what was going on. But, you know, everybody just seemed to go along with it. It's like, oh well, we don't have money, so let's pack up.

Peter Biello: And of those that were found, only about two-thirds were identified, correct?

Shaun Raviv: Exactly. Yep.

Peter Biello: That must have been devastating for those families.

Shaun Raviv: It's a very complicated thing because it was unclear whether it's a better thing to have found the body or not. Because if they did, then you knew the body was mistreated. And if you didn't, then maybe it was you had the ashes all along.

Peter Biello: For those who followed the case at the time, they may remember that — that Brent Marsh agreed to a plea deal. That plea deal was 12 years in prison. He also had to write letters to the family members. Many family members spoke in court and you provided some of the audio from back then.

Unidentified relative: This man needs to be punished. He has caused me extreme emotional pain. I walk around with the stress and anxiety burning in my stomach. I grieve over and over for the gruesome treatment of my father.

Peter Biello: How common was that sentiment?

Shaun Raviv: I think it was very common, but not universal. I think a lot of the families were extremely, extremely mad at Brent Marsh: Some of them because they knew him, some of them just because they just felt like he destroyed a very sacred event in their lives, which is the death of a loved one, and honoring of these loved ones. The spectrum was huge. The range of emotions was huge back then. And I think even now.

Peter Biello: The question you asked at the beginning of this podcast — "What do the living owe the dead?" — how do you answer that question?

Shaun Raviv: It's probably similar to my last answer. It's everybody’s sort of got their own answer to it. And I think that my answer and yours would be very different.

Peter Biello: But what is yours?

Shaun Raviv: Um — I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

Peter Biello: After all this time reporting this podcast on that particular question, you're still not sure?

Shaun Raviv: Yeah, I guess I would just say it's, to each person their own and haven't experienced that much death in my life, and I don't think I have a good answer for that for myself.

Peter Biello: Early on in the — in the podcast, I started to think that something was wrong with Brent mentally. Like, what could drive a person to be this careless? Did that thought occur to you as well as you reported on this? Like, "what's wrong with him?"

Shaun Raviv: I think, yeah, the biggest question I've had ever since I started, reporting on this story is: "How can this happen?" That's everyone's question. Like, how could something so insane like this happen? And what kind of person could do that? That's always been a question in my mind. I think you'll sort of — you'll hear my interpretation of it by the end of the podcast.

Peter Biello: Yeah, there's certainly more to come about that central question: Why did this happen? How does Brent explain himself and — or fail to explain himself? You made trips to Noble for this podcast. The property has been leveled. The crematorium no longer exists, but people there remember this. How do people there think about what happened in their town?

Shaun Raviv: I think most people there have tried to put it behind them. It's a small place. Everyone knows each other. I think people just want to move on and just continue their lives. But, you know, some people are definitely still very angry. Some people still have questions and some people are just like, "Well, who cares? That happened 20 years ago."