Following is Part 3 of Gerald Cook and Faye Deal’s story of how they came to “blow the whistle” on Tri-State Crematory in Noble. The final part will appear in tomorrow’s paper.



October 23, 2001



Cook had not been back to Tri-State since that terrible day one year before, but seeing Tri-State Crematory on his list of deliveries for the day brought back the memory in all its horror.

After Cook’s first visit to Tri-State, his friend had made the next propane delivery Nov. 28, 2000; he told Cook he had “just put the gas in and took off.” There had been four propane deliveries to Tri-State already in 2001 — in January, April, June and September — but Cook had not made them. The route was given to a newly hired driver. Cook had been gone during the summer of 2001, and had not spoken to any of the Blossman employees. After Cook returned, in October of 2001, Tri-State had been moved back on Cook’s route.

The prospect of going back to Tri-State worried him, but, he decided, this was his job and he would do it. Anyway, this time he knew where the tank was and, more importantly, he felt confident Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson had taken care of the matter, so there shouldn’t be any problem.

Upon his second arrival at Tri-State, Cook backed his truck up to the opening in the 6-foot wood panel fence, exited his truck and dragged the hose to the tank. As Cook nervously connected the hose to the tank and the pump began to hum, he noted that Marsh was nowhere in sight again. Directly in front of Cook was a small 6-foot by 6-foot building. He did not know the building was Brent Marsh’s office.

While waiting for the tank to fill, Cook noticed a green John Deere backhoe about 20 feet away that was similar to one he had, so he walked over to give it a closer look. Just as before, Cook was suddenly aghast. A few feet from the backhoe, leaning up against another pile of debris, a body lay out in the open, fully exposed to anyone who looked in that direction. Unbelievably, Cook was reliving his nightmare of a year before.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching and making sure he kept his red-and-white truck in full view — a Blossman policy — Cook stepped over to the body to get a better look. This nightmare was as bad as the first. His senses were assaulted by the sight of a decomposing corpse with waxy flesh that appeared to have melted and that seemed to be asking, “Why am I here?”

Again, the waves of nausea rolled over Cook. His only thought was to flee as fast as he could. He wanted to leave that instant and go tell someone, but he couldn’t — not yet. Instead of fleeing, when he saw Marsh exit the small building, he turned his back to the horrid sight, walked nonchalantly back to the propane tank, and stood there anxiously waiting for the tank to fill and despising that terrible place.

Cook could not help wondering why Marsh had left a body there when he knew somebody would be coming to bring gas. It didn’t make any sense. Cook’s throat tightened and his stomach quivered when Brent Marsh moved toward him.

Marsh stopped when he reached Cook’s side, and the extra-large frame of the former college linebacker dwarfed Cook, who stood 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed only 140 pounds. Intimidated by the much larger man and sick with fear, Cook made sure to keep his back to the corpse. With Marsh towering over him, Cook steadily looked in the opposite direction of where the corpse lay and saw a blue tarp 30 feet away, stretched tight over the ground in the woods. Marsh noticed that Cook had seen the tarp and volunteered the information that they had septic tank problems and had been forced to dig it up.

Cook knew Marsh’s statement was a lie. He knew that a tarp sags when it covers a pit, and this tarp was tight. He also knew that when you dig a hole for a septic tank the dirt must go somewhere, and there were no fresh dirt piles anywhere nearby. Cook thought the tarp was hiding something, but he had no desire to see what that something might be because he suspected it would only deepen his already-growing nightmare. While Cook didn’t know what was under the tarp, he knew very well what was lying in the open 20 feet behind him and Marsh.

With the delivery finished and trying desperately to hide his suspicions and fears, Cook disconnected the hose and dragged it back to the idling truck, all the while taking great care not to look in the direction of the decomposing corpse. Marsh continued to watch his every move.

Greatly relieved to drive away from the wretched place, Cook once again thought about what he had seen. Obviously, the problem still existed. Sheriff Wilson had not taken care of it, and Cook wondered why not.

This time Cook was determined to find someone to put a stop to what he felt certain had to be a crime. He decided that if Sheriff Wilson would not take care of it, he would find someone who would. He needed to go around Sheriff Wilson, and Cook knew just how to do that.

Cook’s aunt was Faye Deal, the Information Management Assistant with the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Rossville. After talking with her nephew, Deal pondered who to call about the problem. Upon deciding it was, if nothing else, an environmental health concern, she called the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Atlanta.

Like the FBI, the EPA is a federal agency. It was established in 1970 in response to America’s urbanization that had polluted the air, land and water. The EPA was charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the public’s health and environment.

Deal knew all dead bodies are potential carriers of infection that can spread disease and death through the environment to other animals and humans.

Tuberculosis and chicken pox can be spread by insects and animals — ticks spread Lyme disease and the mosquito is a known carrier of malaria. The bubonic plaque, spread by fleas on rats, came to be known as “The Black Death” because it killed millions of people in Europe in the late 1300s. Scores of people died in Europe and America in the 1800s from cholera when the groundwater became contaminated.

A corpse can be host to a multitude of highly infectious diseases — HIV, Hepatitis B and C, anthrax, rabies, diphtheria, etc. — and the proper disposal of a dead body is tantamount to protecting the public health. Professionals who handle dead bodies have long known to wear protective clothing, usually disposable gowns, aprons, masks, caps, gloves and sometimes goggles. Actual handling of the body is kept to a minimum, and they avoid direct contact with any blood, other body fluids or tissue. Typically, cremation is the disposal of choice for bodies which are known to be highly infected.

Faye Deal spoke with EPA investigator Frank Garcia, but she didn’t want to give him any names. Her nephew’s children went to school with the Marsh family’s children, and Deal didn’t want any backlash from the report. In order to protect her nephew’s identity, she made the call anonymously and told Garcia that human remains had been found lying around at Tri-State.

Deal got the impression that Garcia did not take her report seriously. In fact, she got the impression he thought her call was a joke. She decided to change course and asked Garcia, “What if I told you I was walking my dog and the dog found a human bone, what would you do?”

Garcia said he would make an inquiry.

Unknown to Deal, Garcia picked up the phone, called the Walker County Sheriff’s Department and spoke with Major Hill Morrison, whose office was located across the hall from Sheriff Steve Wilson. Morrison sent officer Mark Stanfield to investigate the complaint.

Stanfield went to the Marsh residence, and Clara Marsh met him at the door and invited the officer inside. Stanfield spoke briefly with Ray Marsh who was lying in bed, and he told Clara Marsh there had been a complaint from the EPA “regarding a neighbor finding a human bone.” Clara Marsh denied that the accusation was possible. She then told Stanfield her son was in charge of the crematory and was out of town.

As he was leaving, Stanfield took a cursory glance around the property. Looking in the direction of the crematory and seeing that the driveway to it was secured with a cable and lock, he got in his car and left. He drove up and down Center Point and Veeler Roads looking for anyone out walking a dog. When he saw no one fitting that description, that was the end of his investigation.

Stanfield reported back to Morrison that he had not found anything. Morrison called Garcia back at the EPA and told him nothing had been found. Garcia did not call Deal back because he did not have her name or telephone number.



To be continued.



To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208