Man convicted of trafficking stolen body parts sentenced to six years in prison

A Pennsylvania man who participated in a multi-state organ trafficking scandal involving Harvard Medical School has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Key Takeaways:

• Cedric Lodge, the morgue manager of Harvard Medical School, was found to be selling organs and body parts to a nationwide network of dealers.

• One of the buyers was Jeremy Pauley, who seemingly kept some of the remains he purchased and sold others.

• Pauley was also found to have the bodies of multiple babies, at least one of which was clearly preborn.

• The Department of Justice sought a 15-year prison term for Pauley, due to the trafficking of hearts, hands, brains, faces, and other body parts, but was sentenced to just six years.

The Backstory:

As Live Action News previously reported, Cedric Lodge and Jeremy Pauley were participants in a nationwide body part trafficking scheme out of Harvard Medical School. As morgue manager for Harvard Medical School, Lodge oversaw Harvard's “Anatomical Gifts Program,” through which he and his wife, Denise, took organs and other body parts to sell.

The organs and body parts were obtained from individuals who had requested that their bodies be donated to medical science, allowing medical students to study them and practice medical procedures. Afterward, the remains were to be cremated, with the ashes either returned to their families or buried in Harvard’s medical cemetery. That's not what happened. Lodge severely violated the trust of these individuals and used their deaths and donations as an opportunity to make a profit.

The media is outraged over stolen body parts… but only if it doesn’t involve abortion

Pauley purchased body parts from Lodge, as did others. Two of them, Katrina Maclean and Joshua Taylor, were allowed to enter the morgue and select what body parts they wanted, which they would buy from Lodge and then sell at a profit.

Maclean specifically owned a business called “Kat’s Creepy Creations." She bought dissected faces for $600, which she wanted to tan into leather. Authorities said that in addition to selling horror-themed upcycled dolls through her business, she was also storing and selling human remains.

As for Pauley, he worked with both Lodge and an Arkansas woman named Candace Chapman Scott, who worked for a mortuary and crematorium.

WARNING: Images below may be disturbing to some people.

Scott also stole parts from bodies she was supposed to cremate and sold them to Pauley. Pauley kept some of the remains he purchased and sold others for a profit, with Matthew Lampi as one frequent partner. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Pauley and Lampi sold body parts over "an extended period of time" with more than $100,000 in payments exchanged between the two.

On his website, Pauley described himself as a “lead preservation specialist of retired medical specimens and curator to historic remains and artifacts.” His “business” included, according to Pauley, preservation work, plastination, the Memento Mori Museum, and the Pauley Institute of Preservation. He also said he wanted to create “a department dedicated to the tanning of human leather adorned with tattoos for the purposes of mourning the dearly departed.”

Yet most of the photos on Pauley’s website were of babies, not adults, and many of them were clearly preborn children, including at least one still in his or her mother’s womb.

It is not known where Pauley obtained these bodies, but they well could have come from Harvard, which is staunchly pro-abortion. Harvard University Health Services promised to continue committing abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, and appears to have done just that. An OB/GYN residency program affiliated with Harvard Medical School includes a “family planning” rotation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and its website includes a Family Planning Division (which speaks about Harvard's commitment to abortion), a Family Planning Fellowship, and instructions on how to commit abortions. Harvard Medical School has also partnered with Planned Parenthood to promote abortion and train OB/GYNs to become abortionists.

Pauley already pleaded guilty to charges of interstate transport of stolen property and conspiracy of interstate transport of stolen property. Others involved in the scheme, including both Cedric and Denise Lodge, Maclean, Taylor, Scott, and Lampi, have all pleaded guilty as well.

“This is one of the most bizarre investigations I have encountered in my thirty-three years as a prosecutor," Cumberland County District Attorney Seán M. McCormack said in a press release. "Just when I think I have seen it all, a case like this comes around.”

The Details:

The Department of Justice announced Pauley's six-year prison sentence in a press release. “The trafficking of stolen human remains through the US Mail is a disturbing act that victimizes already grieving families while also creating a potentially hazardous situation for Postal employees and customers,” Christopher Nielsen, the Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service, said. “I hope our efforts, and these sentencings, bring some amount of closure to those affected by this terrible crime.”

In addition to the federal charges brought against him, in 2024, Pauley was sentenced to two years of probation on an abuse of a corpse conviction after he admitted to buying and selling human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary. Prosecutors in that case dismissed other counts against him, including receiving stolen property and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities.

Disturbingly, as this case has progressed, Pauley opened another "museum" in Pennsylvania, this one called the Wunderkammer Olde Curiosities Shoppe, which he runs with his girlfriend, Sophie Vietri. She released a statement on their behalf, in which she blamed much of the scandal on Pauley's ex-wife, and then triumphantly claimed the case proved it is legal to sell body parts in the United States.

"A thank you to Judge Brann for being fair, understanding, and respectful to everyone involved, most importantly the families that were affected," she wrote, and added, "The judge in this case ruled human remains are NOT illegal to buy and sell."

While it is true that federal law in this area is confusing, what is abundantly clear is that the buying and selling of stolen goods is illegal — and in this case, Pauley knowingly and repeatedly did just that, with the stolen "goods" being body parts.

The Bottom Line:

While Pauley and his girlfriend try to present themselves as thoughtful and kind people who merely want to honor those who have died, even claiming they were asked to do so by the families, the victim impact statements told a very different tale, including trauma inflicted on families by Pauley's actions.

A mother whose stillborn child Pauley purchased explained, "I have to think about not only my child being sent through the mail like an Amazon package, but who all touched him? Who all came in contact with him?" she said. "We had a beautiful memorial for him, and he wasn't even there."