By: Jeffrey Wu
On June 14, former manager Cedric Lodge, his wife, Denise Lodge, and three others – Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, and Mathew Lampi – were charged with the theft and sale of human body parts acquired from Harvard Medical School (HMS). From 2018 to 2023, body parts were donated to HMS through a systematic plan. They were unknowingly distributed, according to authorities, and sold for a profit.
However, profit is definitely not the intention of donations to HMS. Families donated bodies to HMS for educational and scientific purposes. When a corpse is no longer needed, it is cremated and given to the donor’s family or buried in a cemetery.
Authorities claim that Lodge brought body parts from HMS, including heads, brains, skin, and bones, back to his residence and occasionally mailed the body parts to buyers. He supposedly allowed buyers to “shop” for body parts at the mortuary.
Prosecutors say the defendants were all part of an organization that bought and sold body parts from HMS and from an Arkansas mortuary. Lodge apparently had communicated with Maclean, Taylor, and others via phone calls and social media to sell the body parts.
Lodge's acts were described as "morally reprehensible" by two HMS deans, George Daley and Edward Hundert, in an article posted on the school's website.
The deans wrote, “We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others. 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.”
Lodge was fired on May 6.
Denise has already been in court and was freed on a personal recognizance bail, according to WMUR-TV. The rest have yet to be tried.
Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/six-charged-trafficking-stolen-human-remains
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-06-14/theft-and-sale-of-human-body-parts-at-harvard-medical-school-morgue-leads-to-indictments