Members of the Marsh family on two occasions told a Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., funeral home that their crematory was not working.
That was on Sept. 8, 1997, and last August, Glenda Wilson of Wilson & Son Funeral Home said.
Georgia officials said earlier this week the crematory at the Noble, Ga., site where 339 uncremated bodies have been found has been tested and is working.
Mrs. Wilson said on Sept. 8, 1997, that Ray Marsh and his daughter, LeShea Marsh, came to their facility asking that a body be cremated for them. She said she was advised their crematory was not working.
Officials have said that Ray Marsh, the creamatory founder, turned the operation over to his son, Brent, in 1996 after his health began failing.
Mrs. Wilson said last September they were contacted by Brent Marsh, who asked that they cremate a body for him.
She said they complied with both requests.
Mrs. Wilson said she has records of both instances, and she said they are both marked "creamatory out of repair."
Asked why she believes they were asked to cremate the bodies, she said, "Leroy (her husband) and I have asked ourselves that many times."
An attorney who filed the first lawsuit in the case, David Randolph Smith of Nashville, said he believes it was done to get cremated material to give back to various families.
Mrs. Wilson said her funeral home did not charge the Marshes for either cremation. She said the Marshes had helped them in the early days of their funeral home.
LaShea Marsh is an employee of Franklin-Strickland Funeral Home in Chattanooga, and a state board in Tennessee that oversees funeral home is looking into her activities.
John P. Franklin, an owner of Franklin-Strickland, told Chattanoogan.com earlier that LaShea Marsh never took bodies from Franklin-Strickland to her family's facility.
Attorney Smith said one of his clients said LaShea Marsh told him she would follow the creamation process all the way through and return the ashes to him.
Franklin-Strickland Funeral Home sent 32 bodies to the crematory at Noble, Ga., during 1999-2001.