Church at the edge of crematory site prays for comfort, faith

Posted 9:18AM on Monday 25th February 2002 ( 23 years ago )

NOBLE - "Come, Holy Spirit," the choir sang. And then "People Need the Lord." Even the hymns at a Sunday morning service at Center Point Baptist Church -- a quarter-mile from the crematory site where investigators have discovered more than 300 discarded corpses -- carried the congregation's message of responding to crisis with faith. "It is in the midst of sorrow that the love of God is made real," Pastor Charles Cornwell said from the pulpit. Still, the questions plague many here, from investigators to victims to neighbors: How did this happen? And more importantly, why? "How would you explain what happened back here?" Cornwell asked, stretching his arm out to the side of the brick church that faces the Tri-State Crematory, where 306 bodies already have been found stacked in sheds and buried in shallow graves. Investigators fear there could be hundreds more. "I think it could be summed up in one word -- sin," he said. "Sin does two things. Sin blinds us and sin makes us do dumb things." Tim Mason, a resident of nearby LaFayette whose father's body was the first to be identified at the crematory, said no possible explanation could ever satisfy him. "We thought he was a friend," Mason said of Tri-State operator Ray Brent Marsh, who took over the family business in 1996 from his parents, Ray and Clara Marsh. "Ray, too. We've known them for 30 years." "I'd like to sit down and talk with them," he said Friday, while waiting for Ray Brent Marsh's bond hearing to begin. "I think I could do it without being angry. But I don't think they want to talk to anybody." Only Ray Brent Marsh, 28, has been charged. He is in Walker County jail on 16 counts of theft by deception, for allegedly taking payments for cremations he never intended to perform. A judge is deciding whether to release him on bond. Authorities have said some of the corpses appear to have been dumped at the site 15 or more years ago, leading many to speculate that Ray Brent was simply carrying on a practice begun by his father. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson has said he tried to interview Ray Marsh but said the father, whom he described as elderly and bedridden, is not lucid. "There's more involved in it than the boy," Jerri Coulter said after Sunday's service. "He's taking the brunt of it for the family, but some of those others should come forward and take what's coming." The outrage generated by this case is so strong that Marsh, who authorities say has gotten numerous death threats, wore a bulletproof vest to his court appearance Friday. Steve Gaither, a deacon at Center Point Baptist, said he understands the anger, especially the betrayal felt by the families who are now trying to find out if their loved ones' bodies are among the corpses being dug up at Tri-State. But he wants to understand Ray Brent Marsh, too. "Really, the question is, what happened? How did this get started? Until he has his day in court, we won't know," he said. "Everybody needs to stay calm about this." But the community doesn't need simply justice, Cornwell said. It needs faith. "The cloud of darkness, the cloud of despair that looms over our community is growing darker each day," he said. "But the ray of hope is getting stronger, too. There is no crisis so great that we cannot get through it."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/198344