Former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School pleads guilty to trafficking body parts

Two years after the controversy came to light, a former morgue manager for Harvard Medical School has pled guilty to selling organs and body parts on the black market.

A press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that 57-year-old Cedric Lodge had pled guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains and faces up to 10 years in prison.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• A former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School has pled guilty to the illegal trafficking and sale of human organs and body parts. His wife participated with him, and several buyers have been identified, charged, and sentenced.

• A press release states that he “removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes” but before proper cremation.

• The dean of the medical school says that the man’s guilty plea is little comfort to the families who were wronged.

THE BACKSTORY:

Harvard Medical School is one of the most respected medical institutions in the country, and because of that reputation, people have been willing to donate their bodies to medical science there. What is meant to happen is that medical students practice on the cadavers, and then the bodies are cremated, with the ashes either buried respectfully in the Harvard cemetery or returned to their families.

But in 2023, Cedric Lodge used his position as morgue manager, which included overseeing the “Anatomical Gifts Program,” to obtain organs and other body parts. He and his wife, Denise, then sold them to a “nationwide network,” with Lodge and an additional four people charged once the scheme came to light.

Lodge allowed at least two people — Katrina Maclean and Joshua Taylor — to enter the morgue so they could select which body parts they wanted to buy, later selling them at a profit. Maclean had a business called “Kat’s Creepy Creations,” and she allegedly bought human faces to tan into leather, also storing and selling other body parts.

But there were other buyers as well, many of whom have already pled guilty and/or received sentencing.

THE DETAILS:

The press release about Lodge’s guilty plea states that “from 2018 through at least March 2020,” Lodge “participated in the sale and interstate transport of human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School morgue” while in the school’s employment. The release says he “removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school.”

One of the people to whom body parts were resold (and who pled guilty) was Jeremy Pauley, who called himself a “lead preservation specialist of retired medical specimens and curator to historic remains and artifacts.” Pauley seemingly kept some of the remains he purchased, and sold others. His website boasted about his “business,” which he said included preservation work, plastination, and the Memento Mori Museum. His most recent endeavor is listed as The Pauley Institute of Preservation. Additionally, he said he “intends on founding a department dedicated to the tanning of human leather adorned with tattoos for the purposes of mourning the dearly departed.”

Most of the photos on Pauley’s website, however, were not of adults, but of babies. Some of them were clearly preborn children, including at least one still in his or her mother’s womb.

While Pauley did not say where he obtained these bodies, it is possible they came from Harvard as well. Harvard University Health Services promised to continue committing abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. An OB/GYN residency program affiliated with Harvard Medical School includes a “family planning” rotation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; its website includes a Family Planning Division which upholds its “commitment” to abortion, a Family Planning Fellowship, and instruction in how to commit abortions. Harvard Medical School has also partnered with Planned Parenthood to promote abortion and train more OB/GYNs to become abortionists.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Dr. George Q. Daley, the dean of Harvard Medical School, said that Lodge’s guilty plea will not make up for the damage he did to the families who entrusted their loved ones to the school.

“Cedric Lodge’s criminal actions were morally reprehensible and a disgraceful betrayal of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research,” Daley said. “While Lodge has agreed to plead guilty and taken responsibility for his crimes, this likely provides little consolation to the families impacted. We continue to express our deep compassion to all those affected.”