Former Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking body parts from donated cadavers
The former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue pleaded guilty to stealing body parts from cadavers donated to the Boston institution and then selling them, federal prosecutors said.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen human remains, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
He pleaded guilty during a change of plea hearing Wednesday in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to his plea agreement.
Lodge, who had managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, admitted to transporting and selling the stolen human remains across multiple states from 2018 to at least March 2020, prosecutors said.
While employed by the morgue, he "removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school," the U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a press release.
He then took them to his home and, along with his wife, sold them to people in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. The transactions totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.
Lodge's attorney declined to comment on the case Thursday.
Harvard Medical School terminated Lodge's employment in May 2023, school officials said following his indictment, calling the activities an "abhorrent betrayal" and "morally reprehensible." Lodge acted "without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone else" at the institution, the school said.
Several other individuals have also pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains in related cases, including Lodge's wife, Denise Lodge, who is awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
