Mrrzy: Please see the link I posted to this thread on 19-Feb-02 - 01:06 PM, and also this link: ABC News – More Corpses Found

In the ABC News story, "officials said at least one family received remains that did not belong to their relative. The relative's remains were identified among those recovered from the grounds." So at least one family was in possession of the wrong remains, and I don't doubt that they will discover more. Other families have found that what they thought were a relative's ashes were wood ashes or concrete dust or potting soil, depending on the individual urn. It isn't a matter of graves – though apparently some of the bodies had been removed from graves – but a matter of people thinking they were achieving "closure" after a death by disposing of the deceased's body in a way that brought them peace, only to find that the body was unceremoniously dumped and allowed to decay and, in some cases, even mummify. Some people believe that that sort of treatment can cause a dead person's spirit to fail to be at rest; others are simply grieving for the loss of their loved ones all over again because their sense of "closure" is gone. Still others struggle to explain to their young children why Grandma isn't in the urn as they'd been told. That's where the grief counseling comes in.

I don't remember there being a cremation scene in the movie "Groundhog Day" (is it the movie you're referring to?) but, if there was, it was a Hollywood fantasy. The law varies from state to state, but in Pennsylvania (where the movie's story is set), as in New Jersey and apparently in Georgia, the public does not deal directly with a crematorium but must handle the procedure through a licensed funeral director. The body is taken from the funeral home to the crematorium, cremated and returned in the form of ashes to the funeral home if it is to be retrieved by the deceased's relatives. The transportation service can also be provided by a cemetery, I believe. But the family does not attend the actual cremation of the deceased as part of the funeral service itself.

As to the charges against Ray Marsh, he's being held for theft by deception – theft of services that were paid for but not performed – not theft of the bodies. I hope there will be other charges as well, related to the abuse of the corpses and the unsanitary conditions in which they were stored.