BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: SharonA
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 07:21 PM

Rats. That reference to M. Ted's post was supposed to be a blueclickey link. Let me try one more time:

Tune Req: Creamatorium Debacle [sic] post from M. Ted, 18-Feb-02 - 05:24 PM

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: SharonA
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 07:18 PM

As M. Ted said in this post – Tune Req: Creamatorium Debacle [sic] post from M. Ted, 18-Feb-02 - 05:24 PM – there's no reason why a Song Challenge song has to be satirical or humorous. M. Ted suggested a serious song or an old-fashioned love song instead. So how about it? Surely there are those among us who could write a ballad to reflect the outrage of the citizens of Noble, Georgia... perhaps something similar to the mine-disaster songs on the DT.

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: SharonA
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 06:51 PM

Mea culpa, mea culpa. I went and did the black comedy thing. I posted it in Saulgoldie's thread, since he was specifically asking for a satirical treatment of the subject: AUNTIE'S CREMATION by SharonA (a parody of "Anticipation" by Carly Simon)

But I'll repeat the postscript I wrote there: in all seriousness, this really is a devastating situation for a lot of people who are now mourning all over again for their loved ones, and I hope that the perpetrator of this atrocity goes to jail for a long, long time.

Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 06:38 PM

" maybe even Mudcatters have the good taste not to respond to this one"

I wouldn't bet on that. As horror goes this is gruesome, but that's it really. Bodies aren't people. And if you've decided on cremation you've decided to let go of the body anyway.

It's black comedy, and as such has the makings of a song.

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 04:01 PM

Spaw, I had the same initial reaction when I heard the story on NPR; dark humour as a way to deal with the horror I could imagine those people going through. That's why I figured it would show up on the Mudcat. My second thought was more of what I posted. No offense taken...

kat

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: swirlygirl
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 01:23 PM

I think I've become far too rational in my old age. All I'd be worried about are the people who run the place being brought to justice for dodgy business practice...

If I discovered tomorrow that my dad wasn't in his grave it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference cos it's just his body...not him...would probably like to know why he wasn't in there but that'd be about it...

:)

xxx

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 12:18 PM

My apologies but this story struck me as so horrific that I really couldn't grasp what these people are going through outside of the defense of humor. Yesterday afternoon I was in a conversation with a pretty diverse group when this came up and all of them had a similar reaction......Outside of the very black humor here, no one could think of anything to say that didn't involve wanting to string this Marsh character up by his gonads. Sorry....One of thoses situations where a 3D conversation doesn't translate well to cybertalk.

No offense meant here and again, my apologies.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 11:30 AM

Yea! It should be buried.

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 11:10 AM

Well, maybe even Mudcatters have the good taste not to respond to this one. Still...

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 03:17 AM

I figured it would show up here, after I heard about it on NPR. It's pretty gruesome.

Subject: RE: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 01:23 AM

This is not funny..........

Subject: BS: I think there's a song challenge here!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 01:09 AM

Well, the world is a strange place ain't it? The following story from the AP.......Makes you wonder if that really IS Granny up there on the mantle.........or just an urn of mortar mix........

NOBLE, Ga. (AP) _ Distraught families began the wrenching task of trying to identify loved ones Sunday in this rural community where dozens of decomposing corpses were being removed from a crematory.

Authorities said they had recovered 97 bodies _ including one infant _ from storage sheds and scattered in woods behind Tri-State Crematory in this hamlet about 25 miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn.

The final toll is expected to be at least 200, said Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner. Sixteen people have been identified so far. The discoveries began Friday when a woman walking her dog found a skull.

"We're just barely skimming the surface," Sperry said. "Some of the remains are mummified."

Gov. Roy Barnes declared a state of emergency Saturday so local officials could receive state assistance. He visited Noble Sunday afternoon and had a private meeting with about a hundred people who believed their loved ones were at the crematory.

"They are mad," Barnes said. "They are angry. I would be upset too. "They thought they had closure on the death of a loved one and they do not."

There are only two crematory inspectors in Georgia, said Gary McConnell, director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. He said only crematories that deal directly with the public have to be inspected, and that Tri-State was never inspected because it worked only with funeral homes.

Officials were requesting federal assistance and equipment to help process the remains, a task which has overwhelmed local resources, Sperry said. Investigators believe the crematory had stacked the corpses for up to 15 years.

"They just piled them on top and then piled more on top. And then they just left them," Sperry said. "I wish we had a good explanation for this, but we don't."

The crematory's operator, Ray Brent Marsh, 28, was charged with five counts of theft by deception, a felony, for taking payment for cremations he didn't perform. Walker County and state authorities said other charges are likely against Marsh.

A magistrate released Marsh on Sunday after he posted a $25,000 bond. He was not at home late Sunday.

A call to Marsh was not immediately returned, and calls to the crematory were answered by a recording directing callers to the Walker County sheriff's office.

Authorities denied reporters access to the tract, but photographers who flew over the area said they could see lines of white body bags behind the outside building where the crematory is located.

Officials, who have set up a morgue on the site, said they will also search Marsh's entire 16-acre property and a small adjoining lake.

When asked why the bodies had not been cremated, Marsh said the crematory incinerator was not working, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said late Saturday.

Families on Sunday completed Red Cross paperwork to help identify the bodies and several dentists opened their offices to make dental records available.

Pat Higdon of Chattanooga, Tenn., made the drive to fill out paperwork for her husband, Tommy Higdon, who died of lung cancer last fall. She said she chose to cremate his body because she couldn't afford a burial.

"He looked like a corpse for two months before he died. He just laid there with his mouth open and his eyes open," Higdon said. "I can't bear to think he still looks like that, only he's lying in a shed or a creek somewhere."

Stanley Payne of Chattanooga said he had believed the Marshs' crematory would properly handle the remains of his mother, who died two years ago.

"We were childhood friends growing up together," Payne said of the Marsh family. "We trusted them. Everybody trusts everybody here, and everybody believes everybody."

Rusty Cash, of East Ridge, Tenn., said he considered himself lucky his wait is over _ authorities told him Sunday they had identified the body of his mother-in-law, Norma Hutton. After the call, Cash opened the urn he had received from the crematory.

"It looked like burnt wood chips as far as I could tell," Cash said.

Sperry said authorities suspect Marsh may have provided ashes from wood chips to clients as the remains of loved ones. Authorities have asked families to return ashes for examination and have established an information center.

The crematory owners, Ray and Clara Marsh, turned the business over to their son in 1996. The couple has turned over company records to authorities and were cooperating, Walker County chief deputy Hill Morrison said.

A telephone call to their home was not answered Sunday, and Samuel Marsh, who is Ray Marsh's brother, said he did not know how to reach the couple.

"I have no idea how this happened," Samuel Marsh said. "It's just crazy to me."

Between 25 and 30 funeral homes in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama routinely sent bodies to Tri-State for cremation, Bankhead said.

Some of the bodies had been delivered to the Tri-State Crematory within the last few days, and some bore hospital toe tags, Bankhead said.

Some bodies were found in rusty coffins, some as much as 10 years old, that had evidently been buried and then later disinterred, Bankhead said.

"At one time they apparently were buried in the ground in some other cemetery and were dug up and taken to the crematory," he said. "We don't know why that is."

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division began testing well water from the area for contaminants on Saturday but results were not yet available.

Spaw