Teri Crawford (in red at left) huddles with family members after testimony in Tri-State Crematory case. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by John Wilson
A former coordinator for families with bodies sent to Tri-State Crematory said there were 697 bodies sent to the Noble, Ga., facility since 1997.
Authorities have said they found 339 uncremated bodies at the site after making the gruesome discovery in mid-February.
Teri Crawford testified Tuesday morning in the continuation of the hearing before Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Neil Thomas.
Plaintiffs are asking that a class action be set up for cases involving Turner, Wann, Franklin-Strickland, Taylor and Buckner-Rush funeral homes.
The hearing concluded late Tuesday afternoon, with Judge Thomas giving plaintiff attorneys until Sept. 6 to file final briefs and defense lawyers until Sept. 20.
Ms. Crawford, whose brother's body was sent to the crematory, said she took a position with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency dealing with the hundreds of families who were seeking information.
She said she gained access to a number of lists, including that of the funeral homes who had sent bodies to the crematory. She said when she left the job, she was told the agency did not want the lists so she took them with her.
She said she has not shown them to anyone, including lawyers in the case. The lists were turned over to the court and will be placed under seal. Attorneys may examine them, but not the public.
Ms. Crawford said 1,725 bodies in all were sent to Tri-State Crematory during the time it operated from 1982 to February 2002.
She said 999 of those were from 1995 to February 2002.
She said family members she talked to said they "were not able to sleep. They were very depressed. They did not want to leave the house. They did not want to go to work."
She said, "Everybody felt that their loves ones had just been tossed out, and they were trying to deal with that."
Ms. Crawford, who has been critical of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's identification process of the bodies, said Tom Bodkin, a Hamilton County forensic anthropologist, volunteered to help. She said the GBI was not interested, but she began sending cases to him. She said he did not charge families, but made a number of identifications.
Ms. Crawford said she made a visit to the crematory site at the end of February. She said she saw body fat on the floor of the retort. She said its condition was "dilapidated and disgusting."
She testified, "It would be any family's worst nightmare to see this place."
Ms. Crawford said she was concerned about the handling of bodies prior to 1997, but she said checking that out would have cost the agency more money.
She also said that on one occasion the GBI had her listen to pornographic material it had allegedly collected during the investigation.
Ms. Crawford said her brother, Chattanooga attorney Robert Crawford Jr., died in February 2001. She said the family was given his supposed remains back in five separate bags as it had requested.
She said it was not physically possible that he was actually cremated - given the quickness the family got the cremains back.
His body has never been identified.
Ms. Crawford said one of the bags was scattered by some of Mr. Crawford's golfing buddies on his favorite hold at the Council Fire Golf Course, another on the Trail of Tears and a third by his minister at First Baptist Church. She said the family still has two of the bags.
The defense called Jim Rogers, president of Rogers Funeral Home in South Pittsburg, who said they started using Tri-State soon after it opened. He said they had done business with the Marsh family when they opened graves prior to that.
He said they stopped using Tri-State about 1988 when another crematory was opened by Lane Funeral Home that was closer.
But he said there was a request in 1995 by Viston Taylor to have his step-son cremated at Tri-State. Mr. Rogers said he delivered the body there. He said, "I saw nothing that caused me any concern at all."
John Taylor, owner of Taylor Funeral Home, said he met the Marshes while serving as an apprentice at Crombie's Funeral Home on Broad Street in the late 1980s.
He said Ray and Clara Marsh showed him around the property. He said, "They explained the process and went through the whole operation. I was very impressed with it."
He said he was later called by the Marshes to say they had opened a viewing room for families. He said he began notifying families about that option.
But he said when Joe Oden last year wanted to view the cremation that he was told by Brent Marsh that they no longer had the viewing room.
Mr. Taylor told of his wife taking down the body of Mrs. Oden and watching Brent Marsh put it in the retort. He said he went the next day to get the supposed ashes and took them to the Oden family. He said they "were very emotional. The sister had to leave the room."
The body of Mrs. Oden was among those found at the crematory.
Mr. Taylor said he saw some rust on the retort, but otherwise "everything worked perfectly."
He said Brent Marsh told him he was purchasing a new retort. "I said, 'That's great.' I was very proud of him."
Mr. Taylor also said he did not detect the smell of "rotting flesh" on his trip just weeks before the piles of bodies were found on the property.
He said he did not see copies of any licenses on the walls of the crematory, "but I did see a lot of pictures up on the walls - mostly of themselves."
Mr. Taylor said his firm and most other Chattanooga area funeral homes did business with the Marshes "because they were known to be a professional, reliable, dependable concern."
He said the Marshes once hosted an association of funeral homes at their property including a picnic at their lake - which was drained to try to find bodies.
He stated, "Everyone in Tennessee and Georgia knew the Marshes. They stood out to be a very reputable company. We were pleased with their services."
Mr. Taylor said when he went down to identify the body of Mrs. Joe Oden his wife still did not believe it would be her - since she had seen the body of Mrs. Oden put in the Marsh retort the previous day.
When it did turn out to be Mrs. Oden, still attired in her favorite dress, "we were totally shocked. We were devastated beyond compare."
He said he believed that LaShea Marsh, wife of Brent Marsh, was a licensed funeral home director, saying she belonged to the funeral home association, went to mortuary school and was an apprentice at Franklin-Strickland.