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- [00:01]
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Samuel L. Jackson
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Carl's Jr. Advertiser
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Samuel L. Jackson
Hi, I'm Samuel L. Jackson. You've taken my grandfather from me. You've taken my uncle, my aunts, even my mother. Enough is enough. See, my generation has something different. Hope the Alzheimer's association leads the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia, providing care and support, driving research breakthroughs and promising new treatments. Donate today@alz.org hope and join Generation Hope. You got five on it with the five dollar meal deal at McDonald's you about to eat Eating your choice of a tender juicy McChicken or a hot cheesy McDouble sandwich and a crispy four piece McNuggets and a small fries and a small drink for just $5. 5 gets you more at McDonald's. Prices of participation may vary. For a limited time only. At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a car.
- [01:38]
Narrator
It's the two door coupe that was there for your first drive.
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McCracken Poston
The hatchback.
- [01:44]
Samuel L. Jackson
That took you cross country and back.
- [01:48]
Narrator
And the minivan that tackles the weekly.
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McCracken Poston
Carpool for the cars you couldn't live without.
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Narrator
Trust Amica Auto Insurance Amica Empathy is our best policy. This podcast contains graphic descriptions of death and decay. Please listen with care. Campsite Media Walker County, Georgia and Noble. They're places where people and families are entangled. Where if a store closes, your neighbor might be the one to reopen it. Where your high school teacher knows you before you actually sit at a desk in their classroom because they also taught your parents and your cousins. So imagine how it was when the bodies were discovered at Tri State Crematory. It must have been impossible for the families to go to the grocery store or the bank or the Dairy Dip diner without someone asking them how they were doing and reminding them again about the horrible thing that had happened. But some families, the lucky ones, do eventually get some relief. Like Sheila Manus, the independent, loyal wife of Ira Manus, who died in August 2000. Sheila loved her husband so much that she unwrapped Hershey kisses for him before his hunting Trips in September 2002. Seven months after the bodies were discovered, Sheila learns that Ira's body has been found.
- [03:28]
Sheila Manus
I was just laughing, and I was just so glad that they had found him, because I had no idea what I would have done if I had not got a body, you know, I couldn't have lived with that.
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Narrator
I don't think you had immediate elation, yes, Immediate happiness.
- [03:46]
Sheila Manus
Just thank God, you know, there's an end for me, you know?
- [03:53]
Narrator
Ira's body is first identified through DNA samples taken from Sheila's daughter and with the help of some of Ira's old X rays. Sheila calls Special Agent Greg Ramey to thank him, and he tells her a little bit more about the condition of Ira's remains. It's not pretty.
- [04:07]
Sheila Manus
Brent had put a tarp over him. He was outside, and at some point in time, the animals had kind of dragged that tarp kind of half off of him. So he was partially mummified. And then the other side was skeleton. Most of his body parts were there, you know, but he was missing his right arm.
- [04:30]
Narrator
So when Greg tells Sheila that they found Ira, what he really means is that they found most of Ira. They don't know what happened to the missing arm. Ira wasn't buried or in a vault. Since he or most of him was found outside among a bunch of other bodies, his right arm could have gotten mixed up with another set of remains. Now Sheila has to decide what to do with Ira's newfound body. Some of the other families who have gotten bodies decide against cremation this time around. They bury them instead. But Sheila wants to stick with the plan that Aira so meticulously prepared for himself and asked her to carry out. She's going to have him cremated for real this time. A funeral home near Sheila, not the one she originally used, offers free cremations for bodies recovered at Tri State. So Sheila asks them to pick up Ira from the temporary morgue near the Walker County Civic Center. She's filed a lawsuit against the original funeral home that sent Ira's body to Tri State. The attorneys want to get a DNA sample from IRA's body to confirm the remains are actually him. So Sheila invites the representatives of the people she's suing to poke and prod at her dead husband before he's cremated. It turns the funeral home into a bit of a scene. There are lawyers and forensic experts and reporters there, and it's all going smoothly until McCracken, Poston, Brent Marsh's attorney, decides to show up.
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McCracken Poston
Because I knew I was about to be trying a case potentially where these issues of how the DNA was extracted was going to come up.
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Narrator
Sheila sees McCracken pull up to the funeral home in what she describes as his little Mercedes. Funeral home. Lawyers are one thing, but no way in hell does she want the jerk defending Brent Marsh there. When she views Ira's body, she tells her lawyer, get Poston out of here.
- [06:14]
Sheila Manus
He gets out and he's taking his jacket off. And by this time, I'm halfway to him. And my attorney catches up with me. And he stops and he says, this is what you're paying me for. You know, I'm supposed to fight your battles.
- [06:28]
Narrator
Sheila's lawyer stops McCracken and tells him that Sheila doesn't want him around for this.
- [06:32]
McCracken Poston
And I got it. I said, man, don't worry. My role here is not that critical. And I, you know, deferred to the widow's wishes.
- [06:42]
Narrator
So McCracken leaves without a fuss. Sheila and her daughter view Ira's partially mummified remains. From the pictures I've seen, the remains look closer to a pile of bones and dirt than a human body. But Sheila was married to the man for 20 years, and she finds ways to recognize Ira. She sees a familiar plaque pattern from his boxer shorts among the bones and that old dental appliance that Ira wore. There's no doubt it's Ira. Or most of Ira, anyway. The lawyers get the DNA sample they want. And Sheila gets one last look at her husband's remains before he's put into the furnace and burned. Knowing that Ira is finally being cremated brings Sheila some relief. But seeing his half mummified corpse also sharpens her anger towards Brent. Now she knows for sure that Ira's body was mistreated, kept outside for a year like an old car. And any joy she feels over her own closure is tempered by the knowledge that other families are still waiting, hoping, praying for their own positive identifications. Later that night, while Sheila is still at the funeral home, she gets a call from a friend. He says that McCracken wants to talk.
- [07:51]
Sheila Manus
I said, no, I want to call him. I said, what does he want? Well, he's wanting to apologize to you. He didn't know it'd be that upsetting. I said, are you serious? And he said, yeah. And I had his number, and I thought, no.
- [08:09]
Narrator
But then Sheila takes a beat. She thinks, that showboat lawyer McCracken is calling me after midnight to apologize. Normally he'd do it on TV or in the newspaper so that everybody can hear him. He wouldn't do it in private. So Maybe he's being sincere this time. Maybe he's really sorry about showing up at the funeral home. And Sheila calls him back.
- [08:31]
McCracken Poston
Once you get to know Sheila, she's extremely plain spoken. She is going to tell you how she feels. And then it's over for her. And she called me and we had a very frank discussion about what? About Ira and learned about his life. And I listened to her.
- [08:54]
Sheila Manus
He said, yes. He said, I'm really sorry. He said, I'm just doing what I got to do. And he said, but I think I found a formidable opponent. I said, I think you have. And I said, tell me about Brent. And he said, well, I'm not supposed to. I said, I'm just asking. Will you tell me about Brent?
- [09:13]
Narrator
McCracken tells Sheila some things about Brent that haven't been getting much attention on the evening news. About how close Brent is with his family. About his football career at UT Chattanooga. How he's the son of a schoolteacher, Clara. And that his elderly father had a stroke. And this conversation with McCracken, the hotshot lawyer, plants a seed in Sheila's mind. All this time, she's hated Brent, thought he deserved harsh punishment for what he'd done. But the call with McCracken gets her wondering if she's been fair, if Brent really deserves life in prison, if he's really what she's been calling him on the online forums. If Brent Marsh is really a monster after all. From Waveland and Campside Media, this is noble. I'm Sean revive episode 7 the Missing right Arm as Brent Marsh's trial approaches, his attorney, McCracken Poston, does everything he can to put pressure on Walker county prosecutors. In pretrial motions and hearings, McCracken argues that a human body cannot be property. He cites a case from 1905. A widow in Georgia sued the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company for $2,000 for desecrating her husband's corpse. The railroad had been paid to transport the body to where it was going to be buried. But during a changeover from one train to another, they left the body out in the rain for hours.
- [11:00]
McCracken Poston
And so they gave the quasi tort right to the widow because she saw the body being damaged and, you know, messed her head up and all that stuff watching it. But the opinion was beautiful because it described how can we evaluate a rotting corpse? It's not like pig iron or other commodities. It's changing, too. It's becoming less and less as time goes on.
- [11:31]
Narrator
The judge in that case wrote in his opinion, a corpse in some respects is the strangest thing on earth. A man who but yesterday breathed and thought and walked among us has passed away. Something has gone. The body is left still and cold and is all that is visible to mortal eye. Of the man we knew. It is not surprising that the law relating to this mystery of what death leaves behind cannot be precisely brought within the letter of all the rules regarding corn, lumber and pig iron. Based on that old case, McCracken's team argues that Georgia law says a body holds no monetary value and that the bereaved have no right to possess a body. A body cannot be owned in Georgia, they argue, and therefore Brent has not committed theft. On top of this, McCracken is doing his damnedest to increase the cost of a trial. He's already convinced the judge to bring in a jury from outside of Walker county, which will have to house and feed the jurors. And at one point, McCracken tells the county administrator that the trial is going to be really expensive for the county. He tells him, don't you maybe want to tell the prosecutor that taking this case to trial isn't such a good idea?
- [12:38]
McCracken Poston
And I was prodding him, please go talk to him because I'm just going to dig in and you're going to have to identify everybody and I'm going to cross examine that witness as to everybody. So this thing looked like it was going to take months to try.
- [12:58]
Narrator
Eventually, McCracken thinks he's done enough to compel the prosecutor to negotiate a plea deal and avoid a trial. And that's his goal. Even if it's not necessarily what McCracken wants, it's what his client wants.
- [13:11]
McCracken Poston
Brent was the one that put the brakes on. I would have loved to have tried the case. I would have loved to be in a three month long trial, you know, because I think they would be so frustrated.
- [13:25]
Narrator
The Prosecutor starts negotiating. McCracken likes to point out that originally Brent was facing a sentence of 8,000 years. Four times since the death of Jesus. Now he's trying to get the DA to go down to single digits.
- [13:37]
McCracken Poston
Brent, he just said, do it. When we got to the number 12, do it. I don't want to put my family through anymore.
- [13:47]
Narrator
A lot of time has passed at this point. It's been over two years since the bodies were discovered. But after some wrangling, McCracken and the DA agree to a deal. Brent will plead guilty to 787 counts, including 122 counts of burial service fraud and 179 counts of abuse of a corpse. In exchange, he'll get a 12 year sentence. But the sentence is only one part of Brent's punishment. And time in prison is only one part of what the families want. A lot of them think he's getting off way too easy. Even those who are satisfied with the deal still want answers from him and why he did this. And they finally think they're going to get Those answers in November 2004 when Brent pleads guilty in court and he speaks to those individuals who are genuinely harmed emotionally as a result of my actions. I apologize, Brent says during the hearing, but he says that he can't give the families in the courtroom the answers that they want. He says, quote, not for lack of a desire to give those answers. Sheila Manus is there to hear Brent, and his speech runs through her mind as she drives away from the plea hearing.
- [14:58]
Sheila Manus
My son was home when I got home. I went back in his bedroom and I sit down and I said, can I talk to you a minute, Matt? He said, yeah. I said, if I asked you to do something for me, would you do it? And he said, what do you mean? I said anything. If I asked you to kill somebody for me, would you kill somebody for me? He said, you're my mama. Yeah, that's all I need to hear.
- [15:24]
Narrator
The talk with her son and him telling Sheila that he'd do anything for her, even kill someone, confirms a theory she's been developing in her own mind, which is Brent took over Tri State Crematory not because he wanted to, but because he's a good son. She believes that Brent didn't want anything to do with the crematory, but when his father got sick, he agreed to take it over out of a sense of duty to his family and to his mother specifically. Then when Brent found himself in charge, he couldn't keep up, couldn't handle the difficult job of cremating bodies. But he also couldn't admit he'd fallen behind.
- [15:59]
Sheila Manus
He loved his mother. They were a close family and same situation. My aunt's dad was gone and it was up to me to handle everything. So, yes, he would. My son would have done anything for me.
- [16:16]
Narrator
So you, you had gone through somewhat of a similar thing as Brent. Brent's father was sick for a long time. He and, you know, his mother was.
- [16:27]
Sheila Manus
Left holding it and, you know, she couldn't do it, so she had to ask him if he would do it. And being the good, obedient son, he done it.
- [16:37]
Narrator
Just like you and your kids had to step up when Ira died. Yes, Sheila sees clear parallels between her family and the Marsh family. And she begins to regret the mean things she said about the marshes in the online forums.
- [16:49]
Sheila Manus
It's kind of a jolt back into my reality that, you know, I'm a Christian and I wasn't acting like one and it wasn't helping my kids, me going around ranting, carrying on all the time about Brent and all this stuff.
- [17:06]
Narrator
And so sheila calls up McCracken again.
- [17:09]
Sheila Manus
I asked him, I said, what can I do to help? And he said, what do you mean? I said, what can I do to help Brent? He said, are you serious? I said, do I lie? He said, no. And he said, well, he said, let me see and I'll get back with you.
- [17:30]
Narrator
The judge still has to decide if he'll accept the 12 year plea deal agreed upon by McCracken and the prosecutors. They'll hold a hearing where the families, the victims of Tri State will have an opportunity to speak in court. Brent will be there and McCracken expects he'll face some harsh words. He asks Sheila if she's willing to speak at the hearing. But so far, Sheila has had a change of heart only in private. She hasn't spoken about it on the forums, much less in public. She has to decide if she can take her new and true internal feelings about Brent and say them out loud in front of the very people who hate him most.
- [18:18]
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- [18:45]
Samuel L. Jackson
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- [19:07]
Judge Jim Bodiford
Good morning everyone. I'm getting organized here and then I want to speak to you briefly. My name is Jim Bodiford and I'm a and it's been almost three years where I was specially appointed to handle this case.
- [19:22]
Narrator
It's the morning of January 31, 2005 and Judge Jim Bodiford begins a hearing at the Walker County Courthouse in a Big echoey room with high ceilings.
- [19:31]
Judge Jim Bodiford
If anyone wants to speak, they are permitted to speak.
- [19:36]
Narrator
Sheila Maness has found her seat along with dozens of others in the back of the courtroom. Across from Sheila, she sees the other victims sitting together in the jury box wearing yellow memory ribbons on their chests. She sees Special Agent Greg Ramey sitting with the prosecutors in a wood backed chair right by the jury box, as if to show the families he's still with them all this time.
- [19:56]
Judge Jim Bodiford
Later, both the state and the defense have entered into a negotiated plea, which is pretty common.
- [20:03]
Narrator
Clara Marsh is a robec. And on the other side of the courtroom, on the defense's side, which is pretty empty in comparison, she wears a white church hat with a flower on the side and holds a huge Bible on her lap. At one point, a news camera catches Clara reading what looks like a highlighted section of Isaiah 53, a chapter that foretells the life and death of Christ. Her son Brent Marsh, in a gray suit, sits next to McCracken Poston at the defense table. They're back to the spectators.
- [20:32]
Judge Jim Bodiford
The final word belongs to the judge. After the plea is submitted, the judge can reject it.
- [20:42]
Narrator
Light slants in through the large windows behind Judge Bodiford as he explains that the family members can give their opinions for or against the deal. And if he doesn't approve it, then the case could still go to trial. Boddiford has also read the nearly 250 statements that were already submitted in writing.
- [21:00]
Judge Jim Bodiford
I know that many of you have trouble sleeping. That was probably the number one thing you told me. Many of you have nightmares. Many of you lose your temper easily. Many of you, unfortunately, have had bouts of depression. Many of you are anxious, have anxiety attacks.
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Narrator
And Judge Bodiford keeps reading from this list. Problems focusing, general distrust of people. Isolation, troubles at work and with family, marital issues. And a big guilt about what happened to their relative's body, which was entrusted to them. Something that Sheila has been dealing with for a long time now. Bodiford turns the floor over to the families.
- [21:47]
Judge Jim Bodiford
Julie Kinder.
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Narrator
They're called to the witness stand one by one.
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McCracken Poston
You solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give shall be the.
- [21:54]
Judge Jim Bodiford
Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.
- [21:56]
McCracken Poston
The truth shall help you.
- [21:57]
Narrator
God.
- [21:57]
Sheila Manus
I do.
- [21:58]
Narrator
Please be seated.
- [21:58]
Sheila Manus
Ms. Kendrick, just pick up where the.
- [22:00]
McCracken Poston
Judge can hear you, okay?
- [22:01]
Narrator
Everyone has their own unique story to tell and their own unique reaction to what happened to their relatives. One man gets in the stand and shows a picture of his wife's corpse. Another shows a painting of her sister's Urn, some of the victims who speak are clearly still angry three years later. Like Julie Gosnell kinder, whose father was Robert Gosnell.
- [22:20]
Adrian Brock
Well, Mr. Marsh, how many felonies did you commit? How many times did you break the law, perform a gruesome act? This man needs to be punished. He has caused me extreme emotional pain. I walk around with the stress and anxiety burning in my stomach. I grieve over and over for the gruesome treatment of my father. You're a sicko, in my opinion. Judge Bodiford, please give him the maximal penalty you have at your discretion. Thank you.
- [22:57]
Narrator
Some of the most intense words come from people with personal connections to Brent or the Marsh family. Adrian Brock was a high school football referee and Brent was a regular customer at the store where he worked. Brock's younger brother, Van, was sent to tri State in 1999.
- [23:12]
Judge Jim Bodiford
I was proud of how you did your football career, but when this happened, if this was a football game, I would have to throw you out. This has had a tremendous effect on me and my family and it has had a real effect on my nerves. And my brother, he died in my arms and his wife's arms. And two and a half years later, I'm looking at a skeleton and it hurts, Brent, and I'm so disappointed in you.
- [24:01]
Narrator
Natasha Mann's father, Johnny Dykes, was taken to Tri State in October 2001. Natasha had economics class with Brent and her parents knew Ray and Clara Marsh. Her dad actually visited the crematory and watched Ray work. So when he died, her family felt comfortable sending his body to Tri State. Natasha looks right at Brent as she speaks.
- [24:21]
Adrian Brock
Brent, I don't know what your problem is or was, but it didn't take a lot of brain cells. I keep asking myself why and how could you have done this to my daddy? The answers that I come up with turn my stomach. You have told us that you cannot tell us why you did this horrific crime. And I guess, unfortunately, we have to live with that. I have come to learn through this process that you will meet your maker one day and excuse me, but all the hell you put us through will come back to you twofold. I see nothing when I look at you. You have hardened me in ways that I could never begin to explain. You may not have killed my father, but a part of us died when you put my father's body in a vault with 20 others. I love my daddy with all my heart. And no matter what you have put us through, you could never change that. Life in prison would be Just right for you.
- [25:21]
Narrator
Throughout all of this, sitting at the defense table, Brent is stoic. He doesn't turn his head away from the people speaking at the witness stand. He appears to be looking directly at them. It could be that Brent's sympathetic to their pain and wants to dignify their words by giving them his full attention. Or it could be that that's what his lawyer told him to do. I don't know. Sheila Manus has been waiting to be called to the stand to say her piece. She knows there could be consequences for saying the words she wrote down. She knows that people in this courtroom will turn away from her, maybe even hate her. But she also knows it's the right thing to do. And then the bailiff calls Sheila's name.
- [26:01]
McCracken Poston
Ms. Manus, where are you from, ma'am?
- [26:02]
Sheila Manus
Chadgeworth, Georgia.
- [26:05]
McCracken Poston
And what deceased are you connected with in this case?
- [26:08]
Sheila Manus
My husband. I'll Romanis iii.
- [26:11]
Judge Jim Bodiford
And ma'am, if you would please tell the court how this crime has affected.
- [26:14]
McCracken Poston
You and any other matters that you want to discuss with the court.
- [26:17]
Sheila Manus
Well, there's been a wide range of emotions, but I do have a statement that I would like to read.
- [26:24]
Narrator
Sheila's wearing a black low cut suit and a black jacket. Her hair is dark and goes past her shoulders, and she wears big dangling earrings. If she only had a veil, she could be dressed for a stylish funeral. She reads from a printed sheet and looks at Brent on and off as she talks about Ira, how handsome he was, how he died, how angry and shocked she was when she found out about Tri State, how guilty she felt.
- [26:53]
Sheila Manus
I kept waiting for this so called closure, but it never came. I was full of hate and anger and I had no direction to aim it at. Then finally the day came that I realized that I would never find it as long as I was full of the hate and anger. So I had to let that go.
- [27:15]
Narrator
Sheila talks about that earlier plea hearing when she heard Brent apologize for all that happened and how after that, she went home and discussed it with her children.
- [27:23]
Sheila Manus
And Brent, I want you to know that my family and I accept your apology. The most wonderful thing about being a mother is the fact that they love their children unconditionally. Even though they don't condone what their children do, they will always love them. And I also think you're a very brave man to sit here and accept the punishment set forth by this judge. I think we've all been punished enough and I include you in that statement. If it were up to me, you'd go home today. But I don't have the power to do that.
- [28:04]
Narrator
You can't hear it well in the recording, but when she says that, that she'd like to see Brent go free, people in the courtroom start making noise, grumbling about what Sheila is saying. The judge cuts them off.
- [28:17]
Judge Jim Bodiford
Let's respect. I want you to do this. Let's respect everybody's opinion. There are going to be many, many opinions here today. And you don't have to, you don't have to agree with them, but let's respect them. We're in a court of law. Let's please do that.
- [28:33]
McCracken Poston
Thank you.
- [28:34]
Sheila Manus
Thank you. The only thing I can offer you at this time, Brent, is my forgiveness and best wishes. And please know that not all of us want you to die in prison. And I will never oppose your release on parole. And if there is anything I can do, I'm willing to do it. Thank you.
- [29:04]
Narrator
When Sheila goes home after the hearing, there are TV trucks outside her house. She unplugs her phone from the wall, sends her kids to their friends, and leaves town for a week. Sheila's evolution from leader of the Brent Marsh Hate Club to his advocate is pretty shocking. Other victims eventually forgive Brent, but few make such a complete U turn as Sheila. It really does make her an outlier in the community at the time. I still to this day am not sure how she managed the transformation. Maybe it was the shock of Ira's death and his post death adventure that triggered it. Or maybe, like McCracken said, she has a rare ability to see outside of herself. Over the years, Sheila finds peace with Ira, with what happened to his body. By the time I meet her in 2023, she's lost a daughter and she's fighting a debilitating disease of her own. She shows me a memory book that she's kept all these years. It holds Aira's awards, certificates, accomplishments. It's also got love letters he wrote to her when he was dying, news clippings from all the crematory stuff. It has pictures of Ira when he was alive and dead.
- [30:16]
Sheila Manus
Death's part of life, you know, and you can't run from it. And if I took all the bad things that I've been through, I would just be miserable and wallowing in pity. And I'm too independent and educated to do that.
- [30:41]
Narrator
Sheila is also still at peace with Brent. At one point, they even wrote letters to each other. Sheila can now laugh about what happened at Tri State to Ira, to her and her family. She can even laugh about the one final twist in the saga of ira's body. In January 2003, four months after Ira was identified and cremated for real, Sheila got a call from Greg Ramey. He had two words for her. Ira's back. They'd found Ira's missing right arm a mile away from the body. Animals must have dragged it away. The coroner gave Sheila the arm in a large manila envelope. She had Ira's arm cremated. And she keeps the ashes in a box in her living room mixed with ashes of her deceased daughter. And when she dies, Sheila's ashes will go in there too, commingled with her family. After the hearing, Judge Bodiford approves the plea deal. Brent will get 12 years. Bodiford tells the families he's not going to make Brent explain why he did what he did. But he hopes that Brent will find it in his heart to do so. The families seem desperate to know, but Brent goes to prison without ever explaining publicly why he didn't burn the bodies, why he put bodies in vaults, why he buried bodies in mass graves, why he gave families fake cremains, why he would or could do something so obviously wrong. Noble Walker County. The families, as time passes, they keep asking this question. And two years after the hearing, McCracken gives them an answer.
- [32:23]
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- [32:54]
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- [33:27]
Narrator
In February 2007, with Brent Marsh in prison a couple years into his 12 year sentence, McCracken Poston issues a nine page press release to the media.
- [33:38]
McCracken Poston
I did it on the five year anniversary of the discoveries. And the reason I did was everybody kept saying we never found out why. And it just seemed like a bit of anger behind that. We never found out. We weren't given the reason why this happened. And I thought, well, here, I'll give you the reason. I'll give you what was going to be the defense.
- [34:01]
Narrator
In the press release, McCracken writes that people still come up to him unsolicited and offer their theories for why it happened. The most difficult to tolerate, he writes, are ignorantly conceived opinions involving racism or misguided and inaccurate conspiracy theories. I realize now, he writes, that the need for a plausible explanation is what has invited the rank speculation at this point. McCracken has been working on the Tri State case for half a decade. He's gotten paid some. In fact, one of his payments from the marshes comes in the form of a commercial property. They own the piece of land and Noble where Ray Marsh once owned a general store and where Stan Porter once owned a barbecue restaurant. But overall, McCracken hasn't gotten anywhere near the amount an attorney would normally get paid for working on a case that long. He just seems to really like Brent and Clara and the Marsh family. And he thinks the press release might have a positive effect on Brent's eventual parole hearing. The title of the release, in all caps is A Scientific explanation for the events at Tri State Crematory. When he first took on the case. McCracken explored any possible theories to explain what he calls Brent's bizarre behavior. Investigators ruled out necrophilia or any other abuses of the bodies outside of leaving them to rot. And he didn't save a ton of money by not burning the bodies. So why did Brent do it? McCracken saw Brent as, quote, the most unlikely person to have deceived so many people. And McCracken writes, He was led to believe that Brent was suffering from some kind of neurological disorder. During my many talks with McCracken, when I asked him about Brent's emotional state in the days after the discovery, he always described Brent as being in a fog.
- [35:49]
McCracken Poston
You know, he was in a fog. He was, to me, in a fog. He was operating in a fog for some time.
- [35:58]
Narrator
He told me that Brent seemed bewildered to get a second opinion on this. McCracken asked the one person who might be able to explain Brent's foggy state. Brent's wife. His wife told McCracken that indeed something had been off with Brent.
- [36:12]
McCracken Poston
She said he really suffers from insomnia. The last, like, couple of years or something like that. Just as long as she had known him, he seemed to have this insomnia problem.
- [36:23]
Narrator
Brent's wife also told McCracken that Brent had frequent headaches and body aches. And of course, Brent's father, Ray, had multiple strokes, neuropathy, senility, and Parkinson's like symptoms. That's all. Before ray died in May 2003, McCracken asked Brent what it was like when a body was burned in the Tri State Furnace. And Brent told him the crematory building filled up with smoke.
- [36:47]
McCracken Poston
This machine was in fairly bad shape in terms of ventilation. The stove pipe coming out of it leading to the outside of the building was compromised. It was thinned out, rusted and missing in big parts. So when they would burn a body, dust and vapors fill that building up. And here's two men in there breathing that in. One man for a long time, and then another one comes in and helps him. And then the older one leaves and the other one is there still breathing it in.
- [37:29]
Narrator
McCracken became convinced that Brent and Ray had suffered from mercury poisoning, which could theoretically have caused their symptoms. Brent didn't just ignore every body that he took in. It's believed that he burned approximately 660 bodies over his five years. And all those bodies he burned, a lot of them had dental fillings made partially of mercury. And if you burned the fillings and inhaled the smoke, you'd be inhaling elemental mercury, which is not good. So McCracken started reading academic articles about mercury toxicity, dental amalgams, mercury tainted fish, and the mercury associated set of symptoms famously known as Mad Hatter's disease. And in 2004, McCracken had some of Brent's hairs tested for heavy metals. The results showed that Brent had elevated levels of aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel and tin, all of which together could be a sign of mercury poisoning. Simply put, McCracken's argument is that Brent's brain wasn't functioning properly when he was running the crematory. And the extension of that explanation is that Brent wasn't fully responsible for what happened at Tri State because he was mentally impaired.
- [38:39]
McCracken Poston
Brent could never articulate why this happened. And I believe him. I believe that he was in a fog. And I think the mercury poisoning was the reason. The mercury. The effect of toxicity of mercury on his brain was the reason.
- [39:02]
Narrator
Would it be accurate to say that it seemed like to you that Brent Marsh, throughout the case, while you were working with him closely, that it felt like he was in a fog the entire time?
- [39:12]
McCracken Poston
No, no, no, not at all. He cleared up. He cleared up.
- [39:18]
Narrator
It certainly seems plausible to me that both Ray and Brent were exposed to mercury and who knows what other chemical fumes when the furnace was so porous. And exposure to mercury is a known hazard for people working in the cremation business. But I spoke with an expert who told me that elevated levels of metals like Brent's hair test showed are not a good substitute for clear, direct evidence of mercury exposure. Ray and Brent's symptoms could have been caused by a million things. A lot of people have strokes and get dementia for reasons other than mercury poisoning and Brent's fogginess who wouldn't seem like they're in a fog after going from a seemingly normal guy in a tiny town like Noble to being arrested and put on international news overnight? I personally don't buy the mercury poisoning theory because I just don't think it's been proven. And frankly, neither does McCracken. He ends his 2007 press release with the word opinion. He says it is an opinion based in science that I stand by and am confident will not be contradicted. I ask that any and all in the community consider these facts before making their own final judgment about Brent Marsh and the events at Tri State Crematory. If a better explanation is to be had, it is simply not to be found. Over all this time I've spent learning about Tri State, I've loved talking with McCracken, texting with him day in and day out, laughing with him, begging him for documents, contacts and his memories. But I think there is a better explanation about what happened at Tri State and after more than a year of reporting, I figured out where to find it.
- [40:56]
Judge Jim Bodiford
I know why it happened, when it happened.
- [40:58]
McCracken Poston
I know exactly where all the bodies were. I know exactly what he did. I know everything that he did and I know the reasons why.
- [41:05]
Narrator
That's on the next and final episode of Noble. Noble is a production of Waveland and Campside Media. Noble was reported and written by Johnny Kaufman and me, Sean Ravief. Johnny Kaufman is our Senior producer. Sierra Franco is our Associate producer. Editing by Jason Hoke, Johnny Kaufman and Matt Scherr. Fact checking by Kalyn Lynch Sound design, mixing, scoring and original music by Garrett Tiedemann. Our theme music is La Lucha Esuna Sola by the band Esmerine. Campside Media's operations team is Doug Slaywin, David Eichler, Ashley Warren, Destiny Dingle and Sabina Mara. Jason Hoke is the executive Producer at Waveland. The executive producers at Campside Media are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriatis, Adam Hoff and Matt Sch.
- [42:11]
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