After learning that her father’s body parts were allegedly stolen in a grisly theft ring at the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston —where cadavers were chopped up and illegally sold — a woman is demanding that her mother’s remains be returned to their family.
Paula Peltonovich told NBC Boston that her parents, Nicholas and Joan Pichowicz, donated their remains to the school. She said Harvard confirmed that her father was a victim of the ring following Wednesday indictments that charged morgue manager Cedric Lodge, his wife and several others with trafficking stolen human remains.
“My concern is getting my mom back. I don’t want them to touch my mom. I mean, can you blame me?” Peltonovich said, getting emotional. “Seriously. It’s just — the whole thing’s wrong.”
Nicholas Pichowicz’s body was donated after his death in 2019, according to The Boston Globe. His wife’s remains were donated following her death in March.
Peltonovich told the newspaper that both of her parents worked in law enforcement and loved “helping people.”
“This is what they chose to do years ago,” she said. “They gave back to science.”
Lodge allegedly stole organs and other body parts before their scheduled cremations and, at times, transported them from the morgue to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, federal prosecutors said in a statement. Lodge and his wife, Denise Lodge, allegedly sold the remains to Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, and others, the statement said.
Denise Lodge, Maclean, Taylor and another man named Mathew Lampi were included in the federal grand jury indictment on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods. A sixth person, Jeremy Pauley, was charged by criminal information, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Another woman, Candace Chapman Scott, was previously indicted in Arkansas.
At times, Cedric Lodge would allow Maclean and Taylor to come to the morgue and “examine cadavers to choose what to purchase,” prosecutors said. The Lodges were also accused of shipping remains to Taylor and others out of state.
Taylor allegedly took some of the stolen remains back to Pennsylvania, where he lives. Prosecutors alleged that he and Maclean resold the stolen remains for profit. Pauley allegedly purchased remains from Taylor, Maclean and Scott, who is accused of stealing remains from an Arkansas mortuary and crematorium where she worked.
Prosecutors also accused Pauley of reselling remains he purchased to Lampi and others.
The 15-page indictment doesn’t go into extended detail about what the body parts were purchased for, but it does mention that Maclean allegedly shipped human skin to a man in Pennsylvania “and engaged in his services to tan the skin to create leather.”
Peltonovich told The Boston Globe that the whole ordeal has been a nightmare.
“It’s just unthinkable. There’s no words,” she said. “We were just disgusted. Sick, like we were going to throw up.”
Jack Porter said he has also been affected, telling The Boston Globe that he received a letter from Harvard stating that his wife’s remains “may have been impacted.” He said his wife’s cremated remains were given back to him in 2019, according to the news outlet.
An attorney for Taylor declined to comment on the allegations. Attorneys for the other defendants could not be reached on Friday.
Harvard Medical School said it was “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,” the school said in a statement.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
