Several individuals, including a morgue employee from Harvard Medical School, are facing federal charges for allegedly stealing, selling, and transporting body parts from donated cadavers as part of a “nationwide network.”
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, who is the former manager of HMS’s morgue, as well as several other individuals, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods.
The other individuals indicted were Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts, Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, Denise Lodge, 63, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota. An individual named Jeremy Pauly, 41, of Bloomsberg, Pennsylvania was charged by Criminal Information, and an individual named Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas, was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported. In a lengthy press release, it alleges that this “nationwide network” of individuals bought and sold human remains stolen from HMS’s morgue for years (via U.S. Department of Justice):
The charges allege that from 2018 through 2022, Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, located in Boston, Massachusetts, stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations. Lodge at times transported stolen remains from Boston to his residence in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains to Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, and others, making arrangements via cellular telephone and social media websites. At times, Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and Taylor to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase. On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania. On other occasions, the Lodges shipped stolen remains to Taylor and others out of state.
Maclean and Taylor resold the stolen remains for profit, including to Jeremy Pauley in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Jeremy Pauley also purchased stolen human remains from Candace Chapman Scott, who stole remains from her employer, a Little Rock, Arkansas mortuary and crematorium. Scott stole parts of cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, many of which had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by an area medical school, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned as cremains to their families. Scott sold the stolen remains to Pauley and shipped them to Pauley in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Pauley sold many of the stolen remains he purchased to other individuals, including Matthew Lampi. Lampi and Pauley bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a published 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. With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims.”
FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said "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."
Christopher Nielsen, the Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service, said that “robbing families of the remains of their loved ones is an unconscionable act and confounds our collective sense of decency.”
Earlier this year, Townhall reported how two funeral home operators in Colorado were sentenced for illegally selling bodies and body parts without consent from the families of the deceased. The federal case was triggered by an investigative series run by Reuters from 2016-2018 about the sale of body parts in the U.S.
“These two women preyed on vulnerable victims who turned to them in a time of grief and sadness. But instead of offering guidance, these greedy women betrayed the trust of hundreds of victims and mutilated their loved ones,” FBI Denver Acting Special Agent in Charge Leonard Carollo said in a statement.