Members of a macabre theft ring swiped human remains from the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston and sold those body parts to a nationwide network of buyers, officials said Wednesday.
Indictments handed up from a grand jury in Scranton, Pennsylvania, targeted morgue manager Cedric Lodge, 55, and his wife Denise Lodge, 63, who live in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Salem, Massachusetts, resident Katrina Maclean, 44, and West Lawn, Pennsylvania, man Joshua Taylor, 46, were also indicted in the alleged scheme. Maclean is the owner and operator of a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations, officials said.
They’re all accused of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods.
“At times, Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and Taylor to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase,” according to a statement by federal prosecutors. “On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania. On other occasions, the Lodges shipped stolen remains to Taylor and others out of state.”
Cedric Lodge “stole dissected portions of donated cadavers, including, for example, heads, brains, skin, bones, and other human remains, without the knowledge or permission of HMS,” according to the indictment.
He and his wife would reach out to buyers through websites and cell phones “regarding the sales of stolen human remains,” the court papers said.
The 15-page indictment didn’t go into extended detail over what the body parts were purchased for, but did mention how Maclean shipped human skin to a man in Pennsylvania “and engaged in his services to tan the skin to create leather.”
Maclean asked Cedric Lodge to supply more tissue to send to “the dude I send the chest piece to tan,” according to the indictment.
Between Sept. 3, 2018, and July 12, 2021, Taylor sent 39 electronic payments, for a total of $37,355.56, to a PayPal account run by Denise Lodge for human remains that Cedric Lodge stole from Harvard, the indictment says.
A May 19, 2019, payment from Taylor had a memo, “head number 7,” and a Nov. 20, 2020 transaction was for “braiiiiiins.”
A lawyer for Taylor declined to discuss the case when reached by NBC News on Wednesday afternoon. Attorneys for Cedric Lodge, Denise Lodge and Maclean could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” Harvard Medical School said in a statement.
“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.”
Brittany Kubicko and Madelyn Urabe contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
