Heads, Brains, Skin and Bones: Former Harvard Medical School Staffer Accused of Selling Dissected Cadaver Parts

Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced that a group of individuals, including a former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three others, have been formally charged with the theft and sale of human body parts.

On June 14, authorities said Cedric Lodge, 55; his wife, Denise Lodge, 63; and three other people — Katrina Maclean, 44; Joshua Taylor, 46; and Mathew Lampi, 52 — were charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, according to The Associated Press.

Court documents state Lodge would sometimes take the body parts back to his home, sometimes he would send the body parts through the mail and occasionally allow 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.”

Officials said bodies donated to the medical school are used for education or research purposes. After they’re no longer needed, they are generally cremated and the cremated remains are buried in a cemetery or returned to the donor’s family.

According to prosecutors, the Lodges were part of a nationwide network of buyers and sellers who stole remains from Harvard and an Arkansas mortuary, where they were donated to the University of Arkansas medical school, the AP reported.

Those remains were sold to Maclean, Taylor and others, who then resold them for profit, officials said.

Jeremy Pauley was previously arrested and accused of buying stolen body parts from a woman who worked at Arkansas Central Mortuary Services, as Front Page Detectives previously reported.

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Candace Chapman Scott was later arrested for selling body parts to Pauley from cadavers she was assigned to cremate, as Front Page Detectives previously reported. Pauley allegedly sold some of the body parts to Lampi, who was named in the Harvard indictment.

Pauley and Scott have both pleaded not guilty, authorities said.