<p>When former crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh pleads guilty Friday to dumping 334 bodies and passing off cement dust as their ashes, the victims' relatives and resident of a rural northwest Georgia community may still be left asking the question "Why?"</p><p>Two years after the crime in Noble, Ga., shocked the nation, determining a motive remains elusive, and without a trial the answer may never be known.</p><p>"You're not ever going to learn what occurred and what motivated it unless sometime down into the future Mr. Marsh will speak up," U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy told victims' families at a hearing last month where a class-action civil lawsuit against Marsh was settled.</p><p>The families shouldn't expect an explanation with the closure of Marsh's criminal case. One of Marsh's lawyers, Ron Cordova, says it's unlikely Marsh will make a statement at his court appearance Friday beyond entering his plea.</p><p>However, Cordova and Marsh's aunt said Wednesday that psychological problems may have contributed to what happened.</p><p>A linebacker on the football team at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Marsh left school early in the mid-1990s to help run his ailing father's Tri-State Crematory in Noble. Marsh would later take over the family business, something relatives say was not his first choice.</p><p>"I feel something went wrong with his mind because he was up and bold and popular on the campus and then pulled away from an institution and then got into an occupation that was solitary and depressing," said his 79-year-old aunt, Lorene Marsh.</p><p>Cordova said Marsh was part of a deeply religious family in which he was beholden to his parents when he was asked to do something.</p><p>"He had aspirations of going into business and heading to graduate school for business administration," Cordova said. "I don't think this was a life career choice that he was going to be making, but sometimes events get hold of us rather than us getting hold of events."</p><p>Robert Smalley, a lawyer who represented plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said money could have been a motive as well. He said his investigation found that not enough propane was purchased to run the crematory machine even though Marsh had been paid.</p><p>"I do think there is a fair chance there might have been a cash-flow problem," Smalley said.</p><p>Marsh's attorney disputed a financial motive. Cordova said that of the 999 corpses that were sent to Marsh, 665 of them were cremated. The roughly $90,000 he received over five years for the cremations he didn't perform was spent on the everyday needs of his family, the lawyer said.</p><p>Marsh was by no means living luxuriously. At the time of his arrest, he was living with his wife and newborn in a one-story stone house near the crematory. These days, out on bail and under house arrest, Marsh is living with his mother, Clara.</p><p>Reached at home Wednesday, Clara Marsh said her son was out and not available for an interview. Asked about her feelings in the wake of her son's expected guilty plea, she turned to her faith.</p><p>"Whatever is going on in the world out there as far as I'm concerned is all in God's hands and he will handle it however he chooses to," Clara Marsh said. "And believe me, he will."</p><p>The Marsh case isn't the only time someone's been accused of taking money for cremations and not performing the work. Toledo, Ohio, funeral home operator Henry Harden pleaded no contest to theft and abuse of corpse charges last year after eight decomposing bodies were found in his building after he gave ashes to families who thought they had the remains of their loved ones.</p><p>The Georgia case drew more attention because of the number of corpses found.</p><p>Marsh allegedly stopped performing cremations in 1997, when he took over the family business that served funeral homes in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.</p><p>After an anonymous tip in February 2002, investigators found bodies scattered on the crematory property _ in the woods, in buildings and crammed into burial vaults and behind Marsh's house.</p><p>Marsh is expected to plead guilty to theft and abuse of corpse charges as part of a plea deal in which he will serve no more than 12 years in prison. A source close to the case told the AP that the sentence, which covers all 787 counts against Marsh, will be followed by a probation that would effectively last the rest of his life.</p><p>Marsh also is charged in Tennessee with six felony counts of abuse of a corpse. He is accused of taking bodies to the crematory, then returning to Bradley County funeral homes with what were purported to be those cremated human remains. In some cases, the urns contained cement dust, investigators said.</p><p>Tennessee prosecutor Shari Young said Wednesday that Marsh is expected to plead guilty to the Bradley County charges by the end of the year. As part of his agreement in Georgia, the two prison sentences will run concurrently.</p><p>Marsh and dozens of funeral homes that sent bodies to the crematory have already settled a civil lawsuit for $80 million.</p><p>John Bankhead, with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said some in law enforcement are still wondering why Marsh did what he's accused of doing.</p><p>"The only person who has the answer isn't talking to us," Bankhead said.</p><p>For the victims' families, many are still searching for answers, but at least one doesn't need them for closure.</p><p>"There was a time when I couldn't say that," said Carol Bechtel, 61, of Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, whose parents were supposed to be cremated by Marsh but instead she got ashes she is not sure are their remains.</p><p>"But I have made peace with that," said Bechtel, one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit. "I now sleep nights, and that's the good thing."</p>

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