Noble, Ga. ? Distraught families began the wrenching task of trying to identify loved ones Sunday in this rural community where dozens of decomposing corpses were being removed from a crematory.

Authorities said they had recovered 97 bodies including one infant from storage sheds and scattered in woods behind Tri-State Crematory in this hamlet about 25 miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn.

The final toll is expected to be at least 200, said Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia’s chief medical examiner. Sixteen people have been identified so far. The discoveries began Friday when a woman walking her dog found a skull.

“We’re just barely skimming the surface,” Sperry said. “Some of the remains are mummified.”

Gov. Roy Barnes declared a state of emergency Saturday so local officials could receive state assistance. Sunday afternoon he visited Noble and had a private meeting with about a hundred people who believed their loved ones were at the crematory.

“They are mad,” Barnes said. “They are angry. I would be upset, too. “They thought they had closure on the death of a loved one and they do not.”

There are only two crematory inspectors in Georgia, said Gary McConnell, director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. He said only crematories that deal directly with the public have to be inspected, and that Tri-State was never inspected because it worked only with funeral homes.

Overwhelming task

Officials were requesting federal assistance and equipment to help process the remains, a task that has overwhelmed local resources, Sperry said. Investigators believe the crematory had stacked the corpses for up to 15 years.

“They just piled them on top and then piled more on top. And then they just left them,” Sperry said. “I wish we had a good explanation for this, but we don’t.”

The crematory’s operator, Ray Brent Marsh, 28, was charged with five counts of theft by deception, a felony, for taking payment for cremations he didn’t perform. Walker County and state authorities said other charges are likely against Marsh.

A magistrate released Marsh on Sunday after he posted a $25,000 bond. He was not at home late Sunday.

A call to Marsh was not returned, and calls to the crematory were answered by a recording directing callers to the Walker County sheriff’s office.

Authorities denied reporters access to the tract, but photographers who flew over the area said they could see lines of white body bags behind the outside building where the crematory is located.

Officials, who have set up a morgue on the site, said they will also search Marsh’s entire 16-acre property and a small adjoining lake.

When asked why the bodies had not been cremated, Marsh said the crematory incinerator was not working, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said late Saturday.

Family agonies

Families on Sunday completed Red Cross paperwork to help identify the bodies and several dentists opened their offices to make dental records available.

Pat Higdon of Chattanooga, Tenn., made the drive to fill out paperwork for her husband, Tommy Higdon, who died of lung cancer last fall. She said she chose to cremate his body because she couldn’t afford a burial.

“He looked like a corpse for two months before he died. He just laid there with his mouth open and his eyes open,” Higdon said. “I can’t bear to think he still looks like that, only he’s lying in a shed or a creek somewhere.”

Rusty Cash, of East Ridge, Tenn., said he considered himself lucky his wait is over authorities told him Sunday they had identified the body of his mother-in-law, Norma Hutton. After the call, Cash opened the urn he had received from the crematory.

“It looked like burnt wood chips as far as I could tell,” Cash said.

Sperry said authorities suspect Marsh may have provided ashes from wood chips to clients as the remains of loved ones. Authorities have asked families to return ashes for examination and have established an information center.

The crematory owners, Ray and Clara Marsh, turned the business over to their son in 1996. The couple has turned over company records to authorities and were cooperating, Walker County chief deputy Hill Morrison said.