Photo:File: Sergi Reboredo/VWPics/AP
File: Sergi Reboredo/VWPics/AP
Seven people have been indicted on charges stemming from an alleged “network of individuals” that stole and sold off human remains at Harvard Medical School’s morgue, according to a news release.
Cedric Lodge, the morgue’s former manager, has been charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, according toa joint statementfrom George Q. Daley, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, and Edward M. Hundert, the dean for Medical Education at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, 63, has also been indicted on the same charges, along with Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, and Mathew Lampi, according to a press release from theMiddle District of Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Jeremy Pauley, 41, is accused of purchasing and then reselling the stolen remains, per the press release. Candace Chapman Scott was also indicted in Little Rock, Arkansas, and has been accused of selling and stealing body parts from a mortuary and crematorium, perCBS News.
Cedric, 55, was accused of opening the morgue to buyers who would shop for human remains, in addition to allegedly stealing body parts from cadavers before they were due to be cremated and selling and shipping them to buyers, perNBC Boston. The illegal operation ran “in or about 2018 through on or about August 16, 2022,” according tothe statement from Harvard.
Lodge was fired on May 6, and “investigators believe that Lodge acted without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone else at HMS or Harvard,” the statement from Harvard read.
His name has since been removed from Harvard Medical School’s website, which previously stated that he joined the school’s Anatomical Gift Program in the fall of 1995 and maintained “the anatomical morgue and teaching labs while working closely with HMS faculty and students,“NBC Bostonreports.
According to the prosecution, Taylor, 46, paid the Lodges over $37,000 for human remains from 2018 to 2021. He allegedly sent Denise “$200 with a memo that read ‘braiiiiiins,'” and $1,000 with a memo that read “head number 7,” as the prosecution outlined, perThe New York Times.
Maclean, 44, who owns a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Mass., is accused of storing remains at her storefront and selling them, according toThe Times.
In June or July of 2021, Maclean is accused of sending human skin to Pauley to tan it to create leather, according to the report.
Pauley allegedly sold human remains to Lampi, according toThe New York Times, and allegedly exchanged more than $100,000 in online payments, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.
Lodge, his wife Denise, Maclean, Taylor, Lampi, and Pauley could face up to 15 years in prison for the charges, according to prosecutors.
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” Daley and Hundert wrote in the statement from Harvard. “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.”
U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam called the crime “particularly egregious.”
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“Some crimes defy understanding,” U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam saidin a statement. “The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human.”
source: people.com
