Ex-Harvard Medical School morgue chief to plead guilty in sale of body parts
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The supervisor had been entrusted with handling cadavers and were supposed to be cremated after the research on them had been completed.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Neil Vigdor
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NEW YORK - A former manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School will plead guilty to stealing body parts that had been donated for research and selling them for thousands of dollars to people who collected them as macabre curiosities, according to court documents.
The supervisor, Cedric Lodge, 57, who was fired by the university in 2023, had been entrusted with handling cadavers that were part of the medical school’s Anatomical Gift Programme and were supposed to be cremated after the research on them had been completed, prosecutors said.
But according to a sweeping federal investigation, Lodge turned the morgue into a shopping emporium for brains, skin and other body parts, supplying them to collectors in several states as part of a criminal network that involved several people, including his wife. Investigators said he drove the stolen body parts to his home in New Hampshire.
The breach went undetected from about 2018 until March 2023, tainting one of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools.
In a filing on April 16 in federal court in Pennsylvania, Lodge agreed that he would plead guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of US$250,000 (S$328,000).
Under the plea deal, he will no longer face a conspiracy charge. Prosecutors recommended that he receive less than the maximum sentence, but a judge will make the final decision.
In a statement on April 18, Dr George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, condemned Lodge’s misconduct.
“Cedric Lodge’s criminal actions were morally reprehensible and a disgraceful betrayal of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research,” Dr Daley said. “While Lodge has agreed to plead guilty and taken responsibility for his crimes, this likely provides little consolation to the families impacted. We continue to express our deep compassion to all those affected.”
A lawyer for Lodge did not immediately respond on April 18 to a request for comment. Neither did the US attorney’s office in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which has prosecuted six of the seven people who were charged in connection with the trafficking of stolen body parts.
All but one of them have either pleaded guilty or agreed to do so, including Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, who, like her husband, is waiting to be sentenced.
One case is still pending, while another defendant, a former employee for a mortuary services provider in Arkansas, is seeking to withdraw her guilty plea after being sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors said that Cedric Lodge stole dissected portions from cadavers that had been donated to Harvard, including heads, brains, skin and bones. He then shipped the remains to buyers, including two other defendants.
One of them was Katrina Maclean, owner of a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts, which describes itself on social media as a purveyor of “Creations that shock the mind & shake the soul”.
In a motion last month seeking to have the charges against Maclean dismissed, a defence lawyer argued that human remains “are not, and have never been, deemed to constitute property or ‘goods, wares or merchandise.’”
At times, prosecutors said, Lodge let Maclean and other buyers into the morgue to pick out which body parts they wanted. Maclean chose two dissected faces, agreeing to pay Lodge US$600 for them in October 2020, authorities said.
In just under three years, investigators said, Lodge’s wife received US$37,000 in electronic payments from another buyer, Joshua Taylor, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, in return for body parts that had been stolen by Lodge.
In one transaction, Taylor sent Denise Lodge US$1,000 with a memo that read “head number 7”, prosecutors said. As part of another payment, he sent Lodge US$200 with a memo that read “braiiiiiins,” prosecutors said.
On April 15, Taylor agreed to plead guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. NYTIMES
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.
