SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — The manager of the morgue for Harvard Medical School has been indicted on federal charges after he was accused of selling body parts.
Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, is one of seven people charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Lodge’s wife, Denise, is among those charged.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” U.S. Attorney 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.”
Also charged Tuesday were Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania; and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota. Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pa., was charged by criminal information, and Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says court documents say body parts were stolen from the Harvard morgue and from a mortuary in Arkansas.
Cedric Lodge managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Authorities say that between 2018 through 2022, he stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education.
He is accused of sometimes taking stolen remains from Boston to his home in Goffstown. There, he and his wife sold the remains to Maclean, Taylor, and other buyers, sometimes using social media to set up the purchases. Prosecutors say Maclean and Taylor were sometimes allowed to enter the morgue at Harvard and examine cadavers, picking out which parts they wanted to buy.
Taylor sometimes transported the stolen remains back to Pennsylvania, while other times they were shipped to him or others out of state, prosecutors say. Maclean and Taylor are accused of reselling body parts for profit, including to Pauley.
Scott, who worked for a mortuary and crematorium in Little Rock, Ark., stole body parts and would sell them to Pauley, prosecutors say. Scott is accused of stealing body parts from two stillborn babies.
Pauley reportedly sold many of the body parts he purchased, including to Lampi. Lampi and Pauley are accused of exchanging $100,000 in purchases.
“The defendants violated the trust of the deceased and their families all in the name of greed,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said in a statement. “While today’s charges cannot undo the unfathomable pain this heinous crime has caused, the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to see that justice is served.”
Everyone charged could face a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
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