The former manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School has been indicted for the theft and sale of human body parts.
Cedric Lodge, 55; his wife, Denise Lodge, 63; and three other people — Katrina Maclean, 44; Joshua Taylor, 46; and Mathew Lampi, 52 — are charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania said on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The indictment accuses Lodge of sometimes taking the body parts back to his home, sending some body parts through the mail, and occasionally allowing buyers to stop by the morgue to pick up what they wanted to buy.
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” deans George Daley and Edward Hundert wrote on the school’s website. “The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research.”
Bodies donated to the medical school are used for education or research purposes and are generally cremated after they’re no longer needed. The cremated remains are buried in a cemetery or returned to the donor’s family.
The Lodges made initial court appearances on Wednesday in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire.
Prosecutors said the Lodges were part of a nationwide network of buyers and sellers who stole remains from Harvard and an Arkansas mortuary, where they’d been donated to the University of Arkansas medical school. The remains were sold to Maclean, Taylor, and others, who resold them for profit.
Jeremy Pauley was arrested last summer in the case, accused of buying stolen body parts from a woman who worked at Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Candace Chapman Scott was later arrested for selling body parts to Pauley from cadavers she was assigned to cremate. Pauley also allegedly sold some of the body parts to Lampi, who is accused in the Harvard indictment.
Pauley and Scott have pleaded not guilty.
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[Featured image: Denise Lodge, left, covers her face with a printout of the indictment against her as she walks from the federal courthouse on June 14, 2023, in Concord, New Hampshire. (Steven Porter/The Boston Globe via AP)]
