March 2002
The Director - Features
Nightmare in Noble
Trust in funeral service explodes after ticking crematory time bomb detonates
On Saturday, February 16, 2002, authorities arrested 28-year-old Ray-Brent Marsh, owner and operator of Tri-State Crematory in Noble, Georgia, and charged him with five counts of "theft by deception" for accepting payment for cremation services he did not perform. The following day, authorities arrested Marsh a second time and added another 11 counts of the same crime to the charges against him.
Within 48 hours of his initial arrest, however, in a rapidly escalating story that immediately attracted continuous national media coverage, it grew increasingly apparent that this case did not merely involve an unscrupulous con man intent on swindling money from families and funeral homes. Instead, almost hourly, authorities and the media reported new, nightmarish discoveries on the 16-acre Tri-State Crematory property—discoveries that prompted Walker County [Georgia] Coroner Dewayne Wilson to tell reporters from The New York Times that the situation was "10 times worse" than the "worst horror movie you've ever seen."
Nightmare in Noble, written by Chris Raymond, editor of The Director, details the events of the Tri-State Crematory scandal.
