BOSTON — A former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue has been charged with alleged trafficking of human remains.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Middle District of Pennsylvania Gerard M. Karam, whose office is handling the case. “The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human.”
On Tuesday, Cedric Lodge, 55, the former manager of the school’s morgue, his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, both of Goffstown, N.H.; as well as Katrina MacLean, 44, of Salem; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, were indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charges. This followed charges against Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas.
The alleged ring operated between 2018 and 2022 and would buy and sell human remains stolen from the Harvard Medical School morgue and an Arkansas mortuary.
Cedric Lodge is accused of stealing organs and other parts of human bodies that had been donated to the school for medical research and education before they were to be cremated. From there, the feds say, he would take the remains home to Goffstown where he and his wife would sell the remains to MacLean, Taylor and others.
“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,” Karam said. “With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims.”
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