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Photos lead to disturbing discovery
An England photographer's photos taken inside of an abandoned funeral home in Marietta led to a disturbing discovery --- dozens of cremains. Investigators are now trying to determine who they were.
MARIETTA, Ga. - A major investigation underway at a funeral home in Marietta. Investigators say dozens of cremated human remains were discovered inside the building that has been closed for months.
Investigators from Marietta Police, Fire, the District Attorney's Office, the Medical Examiner and state agencies swarmed the Norman Medford Peden funeral home in Marietta Thursday.
The business has been closed since a fire damaged the building last spring, yet police say cremated human remains had been sitting inside the building all this time.
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Investigators found 35 boxes of cremains along with death certificates, and personal information inside.
"There are boxes, there are folders, file drawers. Everything you would imagine there to be in a fully functioning funeral home, embalming area, and a crematory, certainly there's a tremendous amount of chemicals," said Marietta Police Officer Chuck McPhilamy.
Police were tipped off to what was inside this building by someone who saw photos on Reddit.
They were taken by a man from England, Ben James, who explores abandoned buildings, takes pictures of what he finds, then posts them on his Instagram, @places_forgotten
Ben James says what he found in the funeral home surprised him.
"I didn't know what I was going to find. I saw the prep room and the caskets, other stuff like credit card information, people's addresses, burial information, burial clothes, burial jewelry," said James.
He says he also found boxes and boxes of what appeared to be ashes.
"There comes a limit where people are going to be missing these remains, one of them was from February," said James.
"I think someone needs to be here to secure the property," said James Minor, whose family started the funeral home.
James Minor heard about the investigation and came over to find out more. His father opened the funeral home in 1990 and ran it until it was sold in 2016.
"It's sad, my husband built it, he was very proud of it," said Rita Peden.
The Medical Examiner removed the remains and will now try to positively identify them.
"Photograph them I.D. them, verify them, so we can contact those families," said Officer McPhilamy.
Police say they're also trying to determine if anything criminal was going on here, and if so, what is it and who should be held responsible.