The morgue manager at Harvard Medical School has been accused of selling stolen human body parts online, according to a federal indictment.
Prosecutors allege that the employee, Cedric Lodge, along with his wife and several other traffickers, sold everything from human heads and brains, to faces, skins, hearts, and even stillborn infants that were taken from cadavers donated for research, as well as from a mortuary in Arkansas. Five of the dastardly crew, including the Lodges, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Including previous indictments, seven have been charged in total, with prosecutors describing the group as being part of a social-media-connected network that sold, shipped, and traded butchered bodily remains across the country.
"We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus," wrote George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine, and Edward Hundert, dean for medical education, in a statement. "We owe it to ourselves, our community, our profession, and our patients and their loved ones to ensure that HMS is worthy of the donors who have entrusted their bodies to us for the advancement of medical education and research."
There's a lot to answer for. As manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue, Lodge was a crucial part of the alleged scheme. The 55-year-old could inconspicuously remove body parts from cadavers — which there was probably no shortage of — and then take his grisly haul home, where his spouse would help pack and ship them. Just a cute, family run business.
Lodge has even been accused of going as far as letting some of his buyers come into the morgue to shop for parts in person.
Some of the digital paper trail left sounds comically blunt. According to the indictment, one morbid patron sent $37,000 in payments through PayPal to Lodge between 2018 and 2021. They were marked, unadvisedly, with descriptive notes like "braiiiiiins," and "head number 7," as quoted by The New York Times.
Another red-handed customer secured two dissected faces for the bargain price of $600. That patron, who runs a store called "Kat's Creepy Creations," has further been accused of reselling some of the body parts she bought from Lodge to another individual, who himself was accused of selling human remains to still others.
One person involved in the scheme is also accused of having solicited body parts from an employee at the Arkansas mortuary who was previously indicted in that state. Using her position, that worker allegedly stole the remains of two stillborn corpses awaiting cremation, and then sold them to another conspirator.
Some defendants have pleaded not guilty. After appearing in federal court on Wednesday, one was let go by a judge but, will still need to answer to a court in Pennsylvania, CBS News reports. Both of the Lodges were released on personal bail.
More on medical news: Doctors Remove Woman’s Brain Implant Against Her Will
Share This Article