WASHINGTON, Feb 17: Scores of decomposing bodies, which apparently had been earmarked for cremation, have been discovered strewn throughout a wooded area adjoining a southern US crematorium, US media reported Sunday.

The Atlanta Herald-Constitution newspaper said that as many as 100 corpses had been found in the woods near the Tri-State Crematory in the town of Noble, Georgia.

The bodies were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered throughout the woods near a residential neighbourhood behind the crematory, the daily reported.

Authorities said the search could yield hundreds of bodies dating back as far as two decades, according to media reports.

The newspaper reported that some bodies, still dressed in funeral clothes, apparently had been at the site for just a few days, while others were so old they had become mummified.

A dog walker stumbled over a skull on Friday, prompting authorities to inspect the site, and leading to the grisly discovery.

“There were bodies stacked like cordwood, just discarded and thrown in a pile,” Vernon Keenan, said assistant director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the New York Times.

According to media reports, the facility’s furnace had broken down several years ago and the owners could not afford repairs.

Families who believed they had received the cremated ashes of their deceased relatives had in fact received a mixture of burned wood chips and dirt, officials said.

The Herald-Constitution reported that criminal charges have been filed against the crematory’s manager, Ray Brent Marsh, 28, who was jailed on five counts of theft by deception. Authorities said the fraud charges were brought in the absence of any state laws barring inappropriate treatment of corpses.

His parents, Ray and Clara Marsh, who own the business, were not charged, according to news reports.

Georgia state authorities issued an emergency declaration to expedite the recovery of the bodies.

Officials have set up a makeshift morgue on the site, and began moving the newer bodies to a site near the crematorium where families could identify the remains.—AFP