Woman whose father’s remains were trafficked by Harvard morgue staff says she was ‘going to throw up’
Cedric Lodge allegedly stole ‘heads, brains, skin and bones’ from cadavers donated to school
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A Harvard Medical School morgue manager and his wife are among five people who have been charged with stealing and selling human remains.
Cedric Lodge, who was fired on 6 May, allegedly stole “heads, brains, skin and bones” from cadavers that were donated to the school, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania said on Wednesday.
He and his wife Denise sold the body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, sending them in the post, according to the indictment. In one case, the buyer allegedly intended to tan skin into leather.
The scheme, which is part of a larger black market, is alleged to have gone on from 2018 to 2022.
Mr Lodge, who was hired by Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts in 1995, allegedly sometimes allowed potential buyers into the morgue to choose which body parts they wanted.
After the horrifying allegations emerged, family members who donated their loved ones’ bodies to medical research spoke of their horror.
“We were just disgusted,” Paula Peltonovich, whose father’s remains were donated to the school, told the Boston Globe on Thursday. “Sick, like we were going to throw up.”
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Mr Lodge and his wife, 63, were arrested on Wednesday along with Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts – who owns a store in nearby Peabody called Kat’s Creepy Creations that specialises in “creepy dolls, oddities” and “bone art” – Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota
The defendants in the case face a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods.
Two other people, Jeremy Pauley of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas, were previously indicted for buying and selling stolen body parts intended for cremation and pleaded not guilty.
Ms Maclean is accused of selling remains stolen by Mr Lodge to other buyers in multiple states, including to Mr Pauley, to whom she allegedly shipped a package of human skin in 2021 having “engaged his services to tan the skin to create leather”, after which he sent it back to her, according to The New York Times.
Body parts sold in national network of traffickers trading in human remains
According to the federal indictment, Cecil Lodge would spirit the dissected body parts away from the HMS morgue and store them at his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
He and his wife would then sell them as part of a national network of traffickers trading in human remains, conducting transactions on Facebook and PayPal and cheerily making use of the US Postal Service, as though they were shipping collectible Beanie Babies.
“Head number 7” read one chillingly matter-of-fact PayPal description for one of these transactions, worth $1,000, according to the charging document.
Bodies donated by people who prefer the idea of leaving their earthly remains to science
Bodies are routinely donated to HMS under its “Anatomical Gifts Program” by people who prefer the idea of leaving their earthly remains to science rather than be buried in a cemetery plot or cremated – on the strict understanding that they will be used for educational, teaching or research purposes only – before they are finally laid to rest in a respectful manner in accordance with the deceased’s wishes.
‘We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus'
In response to the indictment and arrest of Lodge and his alleged accomplices, the deans of Harvard University’s faculty of medicine and of HMS’s department of medical education, George Q Daley and Edward M Hundert, issued a statement on Wednesday labelling the conduct they stand accused of “an abhorrent betrayal”.
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus – a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” they wrote.
“The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research.
“We are so very sorry for the pain this news will cause for our anatomical donors’ families and loved ones and HMS pledges to engage with them during this deeply distressing time.”
‘Disgusted’: Woman speaks out after father’s remains trafficked by Harvard morgue manager
A woman whose father is alleged to have been affected by the scheme to sell body parts from the Harvard Medical School Morgue has spoken out, saying that her family “were just disgusted” by the news.
Paula Peltonovich’s father Nicholas Pichowicz said in his will that he wanted his remains to be donated to the school. He died in 2019, aged 87.
Ms Peltonovich told The Boston Globe that she reached out to Harvard after she found out about the indictment against morgue staff.
The family felt “sick, like we were going to throw up,” she added, saying that her father “was a victim” of the trafficking.
“It’s just unthinkable. There’s no words,” she said.
Read more:
Woman speaks out after father’s remains trafficked by Harvard morgue manager
Family felt ‘sick, like we were going to throw up’ after learning news of indictment, daughter says