Noble doesn't even seem to be a town, just an area in Walker County, Georgia, between the towns of Lafayette and rock Spring.

It's a rural area just south of the border with Tennessee and just east of Alabama, hence the name of the business being Tri State Crematory.

The business was on a sixteen acre six and a half hectare piece of land, and the business had a post office box and rock Spring, while the owner had a post office box and Lafayette.

Gerald Cook drove a delivery truck in the area, and in October of two thousand, he was on his way to fill the propane tank of that very crematory.

That propane was what powered the furnace where bodies were turned to ash, or at least they were supposed to be.

As Gerald walked around the property in search of the propane tank, he found a pile of debris, and upon closer inspection he realized that human bones and body parts were mixed in with the wood and leaves.

Suddenly, the operator of the crematory, Brent Marsh, appeared and called out to the gas man.

Gerald asked him where the propane tank was, and Brent pointed him in the right direction.

Gerald pretended that he hadn't noticed the human remains and filled the tank like nothing was wrong.

After driving around in a daze for a bed, Gerald pulled himself together and told his boss about what he had seen.

His boss went to the sheriff's office in Lefayette and explained what his employee had seen.

Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson listened to the story and didn't immediately think he was dealing with the crime.

He assumed the business had gotten backed up and at the worst, he might have been storing bodies improperly.

He looked for a place where he could report the crematory, but couldn't find anywhere that regulated cremation, so he sent a couple of deputies to the property, and they reported that they didn't find anything incriminating.

The story was shrugged off then, but only a few years later the true horror of what was happening at the time Trice State Crematory would come to light.

This is monsters.

The Marshes meant more to Walker County than just business owners.

People called them pillars of the community.

Tommy ray Marsh, who went by Ray, was born on March twelfth, nineteen twenty six, and owed much of his success to his grandfather, Monroe Marsh had been born into slavery, but was freed at the end of the Civil War when he was just one year old.

Monroe went on to learn to read and write and opened a lumber company in Chickamauga, just north of the area known as Noble.

Despite being a black owned business in a predominantly white county in the early twentieth century, it was very successful and helped push Ray to also open his own business.

Ray worked at the family sawmill when he was young before joining the US Army.

After serving two years, he returned to Noble, where he worked a number of jobs and eventually married a woman named Clara Campbell.

She had moved to Walker County in nineteen sixty to teach at the local black high school.

She moved over to the mixed high school in the mid sixties when the schools were desegregated.

The community once voted her Walker County Citizen of the Year.

Ray and Clara had two children together, a son named Ray Brent Marsh who went by Brent, and a daughter named Raines Lache Marsh.

The small community relied on teamwork to keep things running smoothly.

When someone died, Ray would help with funeral services, even digging graves.

He eventually ran to tobacco and ended up with multiple crews digging graves throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

At the time, if you wanted a body cremated, you had to send them to Atlanta, one hundred miles or one hundred and sixty kilometers southeast.

Ray decided he could fill a need and started trice Date Crematory in nineteen eighty two.

He knew it would give many people in the surrounding area cheaper alternative to burying their deceased loved ones.

He bought an eleven ton furnace and built a crematory on land owned by his family.

Local media praised it as the first minority owned crematory in the country.

The Marshes climbed to become one of the most prominent families in Walker County through their hard work and business sense.

Ray joined several county boards and became a Rotary Club member.

The crematory's rates stayed low at two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars per cremation.

They didn't need advertising since they ran what amounted to a monopoly in the region.

They were the only game in a large rural area that encompassed three states.

As the business grew, he hired employees, and as his son, Brent got older, he began helping out at the business as well.

The family business changed hands in nineteen ninety six when Ray had several strokes and developed dementia.

Brent had done well in high school, played football, and was the captain of the track team.

He had graduated and started attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on a football scholarship.

When Ray fell ill, Brent left college during his third year to run the crematory.

Brent followed his parents' example of community service.

He served as his local Baptist church's treasurer, went to Bible class regularly, and sat on the county Board of Family Services.

Gerald Cook wasn't normally scheduled to deliver to the crematory.

In two thousand.

He only took over the delivery after his colleague refused it because it made him, quote unquote feel creepy.

It didn't take long for Gerald to realize exactly where that creepy feeling came from Gerald reported his findings to his boss, who then reached out to the sheriff.

The sheriff sent deputies to the property, assuming it was just a misunderstanding.

The deputies conducted a brief inspection and found nothing out of the ordinary, and the report was shrugged off.

Gerald made another delivery to try state about a year later and spotted decomposing human remains on the property again.

That time, he told his aunt, Fay Dial, an FBI office employee in Rossville, just outside of Chattanooga, right over the border in Georgia.

Before that incident, other red flags had been ignored.

Bill McGill, the former county coroner, had repeatedly asked state officials in the early nineteen nineties about the crematory operating without proper licensing and permits.

It's unclear if the questions were ignored or if officials looked into it and saw that the Tri State crematory had not been breaking any rules.

The state of Georgia passed a law in nineteen ninety one that made anyone who operated a crematory be required to be a licensed funeral director that required a degree.

In almost four thousand hours of apprenticing in order to become licensed, which seemed unreasonable for a nearly seventy year old man who had already been running a crematory for more than a decade.

Ray fought the law and ended up getting an exemption, but the state continued to push the issue until finally dropping it in nineteen ninety six.

That was the same year that Brent ended up taking over operation of the business, So the report to the sheriff in two thousand wasn't the first time the crematory's activities were reported.

It wasn't until Gerald told his aunt that someone finally decided to look into the situation.

On February fifteenth, two they made an anonymous call to the EPA and told them she had been walking her dog and found human remains near a creek.

That was a lie, but she specifically said it was near a crematory in order to trigger an investigation.

Since it was near a creek, EPA investigator Robin Hedn, decided to take a look.

He and a colleague found a human skull in a thicket while approaching the Marsha's property through the woods.

Since investigating human remains was not the responsibility of the EPA.

They made a video recording of the remains and immediately alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities went on to the property, which was where the crematory was located, as well as the homes of the marshes.

They first went to the location of the skull and the corner identified work that had been done by a mortician in preparation for a funeral.

Near the skull, they found bones that were identified as human finger bones.

Before they left the woods, the investigators found a long cardboard box and when they opened it there was the body of an elderly man decomposing inside.

It was clear that something was not right at the crematory and the investigators asked Brent to unlock the building so they could do a full search of the property.

There was a large barn style shed near the crematory and when they opened the door, they saw bodies laid all over the floor.

They looked like they had just been placed there in whatever condition they had been in when they died at the hospital.

In the crematory itself, they found more bodies, one that was in the furnace but hadn't been cremated.

In another building, there was another body just laying on the floor.

As investigators continued to move about the property, they found small bones all over the place.

They found entire skeletons.

There was a hole dug in the ground covered with a blue tarp, and when they pulled back the tarp, they found the hole was partially full of water and there were skeletons in the water.

They found a body in the back of a van.

They found another body in the back of a hearse.

They found a body under a piece of plywood.

The bodies were in various stages of decomposition, from skeletal up to relatively fresh.

Bodies wore formal clothes or hospital gowns, while some remained in body bags.

That was only the first day of the investigation.

They found about forty bodies, which was astronomical already, but over the next few days they would realize they had only discovered the tip of the iceberg.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation spearheaded the massive recovery effort with EPA officials and set up a temporary morgue at the site.

The operation drew workers from all over the country, including teams who had helped it ground zero after nine to eleven.

At least four hundred workers from various agencies joined the effort, while Batesville Casket Company provided receptacles for recovering remains around the clock.

As the search progressed, the workers found more and more bodies.

They found a collection of burial vaults inside the large shed, and when they opened them, they found more bodies.

Inside.

They discovered fifteen bodies crammed into one vault meant for just one person.

The most shocking discovery came from the property's two acre lake, where many remains had been thrown.

Some bodies had been there for just days, while others had been decomposing for years.

Governor Barnes declared a state of emergency, which triggered a coordinated forensic investigation that revealed the true horror of the situation.

The final body count reached three hundred and thirty nine decomposing remains in different stages of decay.

The officers thought they might find thousands of bodies at first, but even three hundred and thirty nine bodies scattered around one property as a horrific thought.

And it was all right next to the home where the marsh family lived.

They had to begin the process of identifying the bodies.

Obviously, not properly cremating the bodies was an issue, but authorities needed to make sure all of the bodies had not been the victim of a crime, at least as far as their cause of death was concerned.

I don't think anybody ever thought that any of the marshas were murderers, but they still needed to know that all of the bodies there were there because they were intended to be cremated.

Then they needed to properly dispose of the bodies and return those remains to families.

That was difficult because bodies were just laying around everywhere.

Brent got a note pad and started helping identify the bodies, but when he identified one body as someone he had already identified somewhere else, the investigators knew they had a real problem.

Brent ended up being no help, and the identification of bodies became a long, arduous process.

Five bodies were able to be identified right away because a few were wearing hospital ID bracelets, and a couple were able to be identified visually.

One was someone who GBI Special Agent Greg Raimi knew personally.

Forensic teams sequenced remains, laid out bones systematically, and documented everything with photographs.

The experts matched dental records, ran DNA tests, and checked funeral home documents to confirm identities.

The funeral homes that had sent bodies to the Tri State crematory were notified and were completely shocked to find out that the bodies had not been cremated.

They assisted as best they could with identifying the bodies they had sent to the facility.

Outside of that, though, they raised an important question.

The families of the deceased had received remains from the crematory, so if they weren't cremating the remains, what had the families received.

They learned that Brent had sent containers filled with c and cement, limestone, dust, and even the ashes of other people to the families of the deceased.

Despite the efforts to identify the bodies, one hundred and thirteen of them could never be identified, and about one hundred and thirty bodies ended up in a mass grave.

Finding three hundred and thirty nine bodies improperly disposed of on a single property was clearly wrong, but authorities had to ask themselves what crime did Brent commit?

In the State of Georgia.

At the time, desecration of a corpse was only a crime if the body was dug up.

It was a deterrent a grave robbing.

Since Brent had received the bodies and they had never been buried, authorities weren't sure if they could charge him with that crime.

The district attorney ended up initially charging Brent with theft by deception for taking his customer's money but not performing the service they had paid for.

He was initially charged with the five counts for the bodies that were immediately identified.

Brent was released on bond, but then was re arrested and charged with one hundred and twenty more counts.

By the end of the investigation, prosecutors ended up charging Brent with seven hundred and eighty seven counts of theft by deception, corpse abuse, burial service fraud, and making false statements.

Brent initially blamed a malfunctioning cremation machine, which is called a retort, notwithstanding that tests after his arrest showed the crematory oven worked perfectly.

Experts in the field noted that equipment problems shouldn't have stopped operations since manufacturers provide regular maintenance programs.

Ray and Clara Marsh, as well as their daughter were arrested on suspicion that they were involved in the case, but they were eventually released.

As the bodies were identified, a few were from nineteen ninety seven, then the amount of bodies rose as the years went on from there.

The most recent body found had arrived at the crematory two days before the investigation.

None of the bodies were identified as having been there from the time Ray had been operating the business.

Brent Marsh apologized when he pleaded guilty, but gave no reasons.

He told the victims quote, to those of you who may have come here today looking for answers, I cannot give you.

The judge sentenced him to twelve years in prison, seventy five years of probation, and ordered him to pay a twenty thousand dollars fine.

The court also made him write apology letters to all two hundred and twenty six families whose loved ones were identified.

Not all of the letters were exactly the same, but they were similar to this one.

Dear missus Smith, I am sorry for your loss.

I wish I had the answers to give you that would put your mind at ease, but I do not.

I can only offer you my deepest apology.

Someday I pray that you will be able to forgive me for my failure to properly performed my job.

Also, I pray you will be able to put an end to this chapter of your life.

Please accept my sincerest apologies and my prayers for you.

Prayerfully, yours, Brent Marsh.

Many family members called the sentence too late given their trauma.

Brent's defense team came forward with a remarkable theory.

In two thousand and seven, medical tests showed that Brent had mercury toxicity from cremating bodies with mercury dental fillings.

His lawyers explained that a broken ventilation system had exposed both Brent and his father to dangerous mercury levels.

They claimed that the poisoning had turned him into a modern day mad hatter and severely impaired.

As judgment tests confirmed high levels of heavy metals in his system.

His lawyer described several symptoms that matched mercury poisoning, including chronic insomnia, headaches, and body aches.

Nearly seven teen hundred family members took a legal action against tri State crematory and the funeral homes after authorities found their relatives remains at the facility, The courts granted class action status to those plaintiffs in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama.

The federal lawsuit reached its conclusion in March of two thousand and four, when all fifty eight funeral homes agreed to settlements totaling thirty six million dollars.

Each family received between five thousand and one hundred thousand dollars based on their specific circumstances.

The courts ordered an eighty million dollar judgment against the Marsh family.

While that judgment couldn't be collected the family's insure, Georgia Farm Bureau ended up paying eighteen million dollars to the plaintiffs in two thousand and seven.

That payment served as full and complete satisfaction of the judgment against the Marsh family.

The tri state crematory scandal revealed major flaws and how Georgia monitored its funeral industry.

A full picture showed that current laws didn't protect consumers well enough.

Georgia law had a serious weakness before the scandal.

Crematories that worked only with funeral homes could operate without licenses.

That meant the avoided mandatory state inspections.

Tri State crematory never received an inspection because of that gap.

The situation became worse because state rules didn't address what happened when crematories failed to cremate bodies, because nobody considered that could happen.

Georgia's legislature completely re wrote the funeral industry's rules after this scandal.

The new laws created felony provisions for violators and banned the abandonment of human remains.

Today, officials conduct regular inspections of funeral establishments and crematories.

A licensed funeral director must be in full and continuous charge of each facility.

Any violations result in immediate fines.

Workers demolished all Trice date property buildings.

In two thousand and five, Clara Marsh signed an agreement that the land will stay in a trust and serve as a peaceful and dignified secluded memorial for the victims.

Georgia's legislature set aside forty five thousand dollars to build a memorial site for the families affected by this tragedy.

It's impossible to say how many bodies were truly on the property.

Brent Marsh's defense tried to claim that three hundred and thirty nine was an overcount, as some of the remains might have been mixed together.

Other reports claimed that the recovery effort stopped once FEMA denied a request for federal aid.

There was a lot of the Marsha's property that did not get covered during the recovery effort, and there are likely still more remains that may never be found.

Though nobody was murdered by Brent Marsh, he still violated every single human being whose body ended up at his business.

He violated the members of those families who believed their loved ones bodies were handled with care, and he violated them again when he gave them fake remains.

He created an environment on his property that could rival any horror movie, and he would have continued to do that if a simple gas delivery hadn't uncovered what was really going on.

He created a horror story, and he was the stories monster.

If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for help.

Please talk to your local shelter, call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine ninth safe.

That's one eight hundred seven ninety nine seven two three three, or you can go to the hotline dot org to chat with someone online.

If you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or even just need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental health facility call nine one one, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight eight in the United States.

They're available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about any mental health issue you might be facing.

If you're a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression, or are in need of any support, please contact the lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four three four five six four, or go to lgbt hootline dot org.

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