Six people, including the manager of the Anatomical Gift Program at Harvard Medical School, are facing federal charges after allegedly conspiring to harvest and resell human organs from cadavers donated for medical research.
Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, allegedly removed human organs from the morgue he oversaw and brought them to his home, where he and his wife Denise then resold them for profit, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which announced the indictmentsWednesday.
The Lodges would allegedly ship the organs, as well as allow co-conspirators to “enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase,” according to prosecutors.
Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Mass., who runs Kat’s Creepy Creations, a “dark arts and oddities” shop, is accused of purchasing body parts from the Lodges, as is Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pa.
Heads, brains, skin and bones were allegedly harvested from cadavers before they were cremated.
Lodge could not be reached for comment. He and his wife are scheduled to make their initial court appearance in Concord on Wednesday.
Harvard Medical School, which authorities described as a “victim” of the scheme, said Lodge's alleged crimes are "morally reprehensible."
"We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others," George Daley, the school's dean, wrote in a letter to the community. "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’s Anatomical Gift Program coordinates donations of body parts and whole corpses to be used by medical and dental students training in human anatomy. When use of the cadavers is complete, the school says they are either cremated or returned for private burial.
The illegal organ harvesting allegedly began as early as 2018, according to court paperwork. In one transaction from 2020, Maclean allegedly purchased two dissected faces from Lodge for $600.
Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minn., was also indicted by a grand jury for their role in the multi-state organ trafficking ring. Candace Chapman Scott, who worked at a morgue in Little Rock, Ark., was previously indicted.
According to prosecutors, Scott “stole parts of cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, many of which had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by an area medical school, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned as cremains to their families.”
Scott then allegedly shipped the remains to a Pennsylvania man, who sold them to customers including Lampi. Authorities allege that the total amount paid for the body parts exceeded $100,000.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” said United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam in a statement.
