Harvard Morgue Chief Sued For Selling Body Parts

Cedric Lodge, the manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue, and three others have been charged with buying and selling stolen human remains, taking "heads, brains, skin and bones" from cadavers donated to Harvard University's medical school and selling them online, Chelsea Bailey reported for BBC News.

Photo Insert: Prosecutors allege Lodge used his position as the manager of the "Anatomical Gifts Program" at Harvard Medical School to dismember cadavers donated for medical research.

He and his wife, Denise, sold body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the indictment read.

The scheme allegedly ran from 2018 to 2021. Prosecutors allege Lodge used his position as the manager of the "Anatomical Gifts Program" at Harvard Medical School to dismember cadavers donated for medical research.

"At times, Cedric Lodge allowed others to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase," according to a statement from the US Attorney's Office. Once convicted, the couple could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Katrina Maclean of Salem, Massachusetts, and Joshua Taylor, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, allegedly bought body parts.

In October 2020, Maclean bought dissected faces for $600 (£473) that she intended to have tanned into leather. Maclean is the owner of a store called Kat's Creepy Creations. She specializes in up-cycling dolls into gothic, blood-soaked, horror novelties. It is unclear if the cadaver parts were used in her products.

The indictment alleges she stored and sold human remains at the store.

Taylor made 39 electronic payments to Lodge for stolen body parts over the course of four years, totaling more than $37,000 (£29,226). The indictment included a grim reference to a PayPal memo for a purchase of $1,000 (£790) that allegedly read "head number 7."

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