LaFayette, Ga. ? Authorities received tips about decomposing bodies on the grounds of a Georgia crematory 10 months before they began investigating.

During those months, authorities say, 66 more bodies were delivered to the crematory and likely added to the hundreds of bodies already abandoned on the premises, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday.

The investigation of the Tri-State Crematory began in February and turned up 339 bodies strewn about or buried on the property. The crematory operator, Ray Brent Marsh, is now awaiting trial for allegedly accepting money for cremations never performed.

Authorities had received a tip about the crematory in April 2001, when Gerald Cook, a driver for Blossman Oil Co., reported seeing decomposing bodies while making a delivery to the crematory. He told his company’s general manager, who told Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson.

Wilson said he saw the matter as a regulatory issue.

“If somebody tells me they saw bodies at the crematory, that’s what a crematory is, a place for bodies,” he said.

During another delivery seven months later, Cook saw more bodies and told his aunt, Fay Deal, a secretary in the FBI office in Rossville.

Deal, seeking to protect Cook’s identity, told the Environmental Protection Agency instead of the FBI, and the EPA called the sheriff’s department.

Capt. Mark Stanfield said he looked at the buildings near the house where Marsh stayed but saw nothing resembling human bones. He said he didn’t have permission to conduct a search.

“We were stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Maj. Hill Morrisson, who had sent Stanfield to the crematory. “We had no reason to suspect.”

Authorities found the bodies in February, after Deal again called the EPA and gave the agency more details.

The EPA sent its own team to investigate and found bodies in the surrounding woods, stacked in storage buildings, stuffed in burial vaults and buried in pits.

Marsh was released from jail on bond last month. He is charged with 398 felonies, including theft by deception and abuse of a body. He took over the crematory near the Tennessee state line from his parents in 1996.