BOSTON – A former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling human body parts taken from donated cadavers, treating them “as if they were baubles,” prosecutors said.
Cedric Lodge, 58, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, was at the center of a years-long scheme in which he removed brains, skin, hands, and faces from bodies donated to Harvard for medical research and teaching. Authorities said he shipped the remains to buyers in Pennsylvania and other states after the cadavers were no longer needed.
Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, was sentenced to just over one year in prison for assisting him. The couple appeared Tuesday in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors described disturbing examples of the sales. In one case, Lodge supplied skin to a buyer so it could be tanned into leather and bound into a book. In another, the couple sold a man’s face, an act prosecutors said underscored the severity of the crimes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan Martin said Lodge collected thousands of dollars from 2018 through March 2020 by profiting from the remains of people whose bodies had been donated for the advancement of science.
After Harvard completes research or instruction using donated bodies, the remains are typically returned to families or cremated. Lodge admitted to removing body parts before cremation.
Lodge, who worked as a morgue manager for 28 years, expressed remorse in court. His defense attorney, Patrick Casey, acknowledged the seriousness of the crimes and said Lodge recognized the harm inflicted on both the deceased and their grieving families.
Harvard Medical School suspended its body donation program for five months in 2023 after charges were filed in the case.
Prosecutors said the investigation into body parts trafficking has led to guilty pleas from at least six other people, including an employee at an Arkansas crematorium.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
- EDGARDO HERNAL
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