WALKER COUNTY, GA -- Ray Brent Marsh is a free man, now, after serving every last day of his prison sentence.
He was sent to jail in 2004 after more than 300 bodies were discovered on his Walker County property. He was running the family-owned Tri-State Crematory, and did not properly dispose of the remains.
Marsh’s lawyers say he has done his time, and should be able to live out the rest of his life privately and in peace. But the families of his victims say they are still haunted by his crime.
“He’s done the time that he was sentenced to,” said Veronica Lively. “My family was sentenced to a lifetime of heartbreak.”
Lively’s grandmother was one of the victims left on the Marsh property. More than a decade later, it is still hard for her to think about.
“For this to happen to her,” Lively said, sobbing.
Families of victims received a letter last week, alerting them that after 12 years, in prison, Ray Brent Marsh was being released.
“Actually, my stomach just started turning,” she said. “I mean, we knew it was coming, but time has just flown.”
In 2002, police found he had been giving cement dust to families, claiming they were cremated remains. Marsh never gave an explanation.
Marsh's attorney, Ken Posten, picked him up from prison, and drove him to his mother’s house in the Walker County community of Noble, Georgia.
He says it’s time for everyone to move on.
“It’s a very happy day for Brent Marsh,” Posten said. “He never complained. He never whined. He never asked, why aren’t you getting me out on parole? He never did, once.”
Posten argued the sentence was too harsh, because he wasn’t convicted of a violent crime, but the families of his victims think he should still be locked up.
“I think he should have gotten more time,” Lively said. “Way more time. A year for each of the bodies.”
As a condition of his release, Marsh will have to write letters to each of the victims’ families, apologizing. That’s 324 letters – and a letter of apology to the community.
He is also prohibited from making money from anything to do with the crime.
