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The morgue manager at Harvard Medical School allegedly stole heads, brains, skin and other body parts and sold them, according to a federal indictment filed on Wednesday.
Cedric Lodge is said to have stolen the remains from cadavers donated to the prestigious university for scientific research and education.
The filing states that Lodge took the dissected body parts to his home in Goffstown New Hampshire, where he and his wife Denise, sold them on as part of a national network of human remains traffickers.
Some of the remains were even shipped through the United States Postal Service.
U.S. Attorney’s Office believe Lodge to have engaged in the unlawful trafficking of human remains between 2018 through to August 16, 2022 whilst working in the morgue as part of the university's Anatomical Gift Program.
Several buyers have also been named in the indictment including Jeremy Pauley
Cedric Lodge is said to have stolen remains from cadavers donated to Harvard Medical School for scientific research and education
Lodge had worked at Harvard since 1995 until the Medical School terminated his employment on May 6 this year.
The school are now working with federal authorities to determine which donors may have been effected and have set up a hotline for donor's families to access information and support.
Harvard insist that no other employees at the school are facing charges or are suspected of any wrongdoing.
Several buyers have also been named in the indictment including Joshua Taylor, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania and Katrina MacLean, of Salem, Massachusetts, who owned and operated a business called Kat's Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts.
'At times, Cedric Lodge used his access to the morgue to allow Katrina MacLean, Joshua Taylor and others to enter the morgue and choose what remains to purchase,' the indictment states.
Maclean is also accused of selling on the remains he obtained to other buyers in multiple states including to Jeremy Pauley of Enola and Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
In October 2020 Maclean sold two dissected faces and skin to Pauley for $600, who was hired to tan the skin and make it into leather before shipping it back to Maclean.
The indictment states that Pauley transferred $8,800 to MacLean and 25 payments totaling $40,049.04 to Taylor via PayPal.
