Harvard Medical School morgue manager Cedric Lodge accused of selling stolen body parts
BOSTON - Cedric Lodge, the manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School, has been accused of selling stolen body parts.
According to a federal indictment out of Pennsylvania, Lodge, 55, stole dissected portions of human cadavers, took them to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire and then sold them online.
The accused
Lodge's 63-year-old wife Denise and two alleged buyers, 44-year-old Katrina MacLean of Salem and 46-year-old Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pennsylvania were also charged in the indictment released Wednesday. The Lodges both appeared in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire Wednesday afternoon. Cedric Lodge said nothing as he left court on Wednesday.
MacLean appeared in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon, where she was charged with transporting stolen goods within and with out of state lines. The maximum sentence for this is 10 years but she was let go by the judge since this is a non-violent offense but she'll have to report in court in Pennsylvania at some point. MacLean wiped away tears when she was told she could go home. She said nothing as she left court and her lawyer also refused to comment.
Two other people were also charged in the investigation - 52-year-old Mathew Lampi of East Bethel, Minnesota and 41-year-old Jeremy Pauley of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. A seventh person, Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was indicted earlier. She's accused of stealing and selling body parts from a mortuary and crematorium.
MacLean owns a store in Peabody called "Kat's Creepy Creations." Back in March, the FBI searched the store and MacLean's home in Salem, Massachusetts. MacLean had no comment to WBZ TV at the time.
"They would have had a search warrant and specifically they would have had information that gave it probable cause to believe this activity was going on," former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindafer told WBZ. "So, they would be looking specifically for a body part, human remains, obviously."
Prosecutors say she, Taylor, and the Lodges took human remains from the morgue and brought them to New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, where Taylor lives, from 2018 to March of this year.
Stolen "heads, brains..."
According to the criminal complaint, the object of the conspiracy was "to profit from the interstate shipment, purchase, and sale of stolen human remains."
Prosecutors say Cedric Lodge stole "heads, brains, skin, bones, and other human remains, without the knowledge or permission of HMS, and removed those remains from the morgue in Massachusetts and transported them to his residence in New Hampshire."
Lodge and his wife allegedly sold the stolen body parts to MacLean, Taylor and others "and sometimes shipped those remains through the United States Postal Service to Pennsylvania and elsewhere."
Sometimes Lodge let MacLean, Taylor and others into the morgue to choose what body parts to buy, prosecutors said.
MacLean is also accused of selling the human remains and storing them at her Peabody shop.
In one instance, prosecutors said MacLean "agreed to purchase two dissected faces for $600" from Cedric Lodge in October 2020.
In another, investigators claimed MacLean shipped human skin to Pauley in Pennsylvania in mid-2021 and "engaged his services to tan the skin to create leather."
Taylor allegedly sent more than $37,000 to Denise Lodge to pay for body parts stolen from the morgue by her husband, according to the criminal complaint.
"On November 20, 2020, Taylor sent Denise Lodge $200 with a memo than read, "braiiiiiins," the complaint said.
"Some crimes defy understanding," U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania Gerard Karam said in a statement. "The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human. It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling. With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims."
Harvard response
Harvard Medical School called the accusations "morally reprehensible."
"We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others," Dean of the Faculty of Medicine George Daley and Dean for Medical Education Edward Hundert said in a statement. "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."
If anyone believes they or a family member may have been affected by the investigation, call (717) 614-4249 or email usapam-victim.information@usdoj.gov .
