By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

NOBLE—It’s been almost 30 years since Msgr. R. Donald Kiernan became chaplain for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. During that time he has pastored this hardworking flock through the intensive ordeals of murder investigations and drug busts. But there has never been a more amazing and grisly assignment than the discovery of hundreds of bodies dumped around the Tri-State Crematory, a scene that many would be hard-pressed to imagine even in a Stephen King novel.

Msgr. Kiernan has visited this small rural Georgia community and the site at the GBI’s invitation several times to provide moral support to the men as they continue their investigation. Deacon Ray Egan joined him on one of these visits.

The area in the northwest corner of Georgia, that abuts Tennessee and Alabama, is more well known for its proximity to the bloody battle site known as Chickamauga, where Union and Confederate forces fought during the Civil War.

But as more bodies are discovered on the property and around the home of Brent Ray Marsh who ran the Tri-State Crematory, it is becoming a different sort of battleground, as investigators from the GBI, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Salvation Army and the Red Cross, as well as hundreds of members of the press, descend on the area.

Msgr. Kiernan got a firsthand look last week, as he toured the area with Bob Hightower, of the Georgia State Patrol, and Vernon Keenan, GBI deputy director. Television helicopters provided a constant buzz in the background.

“The property was full of weeds, abandoned cars and farm equipment,” Msgr. Kiernan said. “Bob Hightower of the (Georgia State Patrol) and Vernon Keenan, GBI deputy director, brought me down to the crematory, which looked rusty. I didn’t go in there. But as we talked and walked, they were discovering things all around us. We would walk and there would be a mound, and they would start digging. Bodies were coming up everywhere.”

During his visit last Wednesday, a shout rang out. “They yelled they had just discovered a body in the lake,” Msgr. Kiernan said.

In a makeshift shed, forensic specialists were separating the bones that had been found in an attempt to identify them. “I have a lot of admiration for the forensics people,” he added.

More than just the total grisly aspect of this scene, however, was the incredulity that accompanied it, he noted. “There looked like there wasn’t a plan (of disposing of the bodies) at all. As I was there the site was revealing more and more ... it was amazing.”

As of Sunday, Feb. 24, the recovery effort had discovered 306 bodies on the property surrounding the crematory.

Off site, at the Walker County Civic Auditorium, additional members of the GBI were busy helping more than 1,000 family members who thought their loved ones might be among those bodies found. Ashes that many had thought were their loved ones’ cremains, have instead turned up as wood chips, and in some cases, crumbled concrete. About 30 funeral homes in the northwest Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama areas used the crematory. The public did not directly contract with Tri-State. Currently, Brent Marsh is charged with 16 counts of theft by deception and is in the county jail.

At Our Lady of the Mount Church in Lookout Mountain, about 30 miles from Noble, a small memorial garden near the church contains the cremated remains of many members of the parish. Pastor Father Adam Ozimek sent a letter out recently to about 10 individuals who might want to investigate whether their family member was among those in question at Tri-State. (Cremation has been accepted in the Catholic Church since a ban on the practice was lifted in 1963.) So far, just one family has called; their funeral home had not used Tri-State for cremation.

In nearby Fort Oglethorpe, the tiny parish of St. Gerard’s is trying to make a difference in the lives of the workers involved in the recovery of the bodies, despite heavy anti-Catholic sentiment in the area.

Recently, Father Michael Redden and two parishioners brought a pick-up truck and two carloads of food to the Walker County Civic Auditorium, to help feed the volunteer workers and their families.

But Father Redden has been unable to meet what may be the emotional needs of those who are working on the site.

With television and newspaper crews swarming the civic center, and GBI, FEMA and GEMA officials guarding the sites, it is difficult to help minister to the emotional needs of the volunteers, he said, many who are experiencing nightmares about their grisly tasks of recovering remains.

“As far as we know at this point, no Catholics were cremated,” Father Redden said. “But we need to figure out a way to get to the workers. I realize that people working need counseling and help .. but it is hard to get out to the neighborhood.”

There is no public access to the area at present.

So far, Father Redden has “gotten about five calls” not for spiritual advice, but requests for legal action against the owner of the crematory, he said.

The GBI is offering help to families who want to have cremains examined. For information call 1-888-887-1845.