Charges of purchasing and reselling stolen human remains have been brought against the morgue manager at Harvard Medical School and three other people.
According to allegations, Cedric Lodge took "heads, brains, skin, and bones" from cadavers donated to the medical school at Harvard University and sold them online.
He and his wife Denise allegedly sold body parts to customers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, according to the indictment.
Between 2018 and 2021, the alleged scheme was active.
The manager of Harvard Medical School's "Anatomical Gifts Program," Mr. Lodge is accused by the prosecution of using his authority to dismember corpses donated for medical research.
To learn and practice medical procedures, Harvard students use donated bodies. The indictment claims that after the school has used a cadaver, it will frequently be cremated and the remains given back to the family or interred in the university's medical cemetery. .
Instead of donating their bodies, Mr. Lodge and his wife are accused of harvesting, selling, and shipping body parts from these donated corpses.
The US Attorney's Office released a statement saying that Cedric Lodge "at times allowed [others] to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase.".
According to allegations, Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, and Katrina Maclean of Salem, Massachusetts, both purchased body parts.
The charging statement claims that Ms. Maclean spent $600 (£473) on dissected faces in October 2020 with the intention of having them turned into leather.
The proprietor of Kat's Creepy Creations is Ms. Maclean. Her expertise in upcycling dolls into gothic, bloody, horror novelty items is evident from the company's social media accounts. It's unclear whether the cadaver parts were applied to her creations. She allegedly kept and sold human remains at the shop, according to the indictment.
Over the course of four years, Mr. Taylor allegedly paid Ms. Lodge more than $37,000 (£29,226) in 39 electronic payments for stolen body parts. The indictment made ominous mention of a PayPal memo for a $1,000 (£790) purchase that purportedly read, "head number 7.".
According to US Attorney Gerard M. Karam, "some crimes defy comprehension.". Humanity's fundamental qualities are attacked by the theft and trafficking of human remains. ".
After their initial appearance at a federal courthouse in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Cedric and Denise Lodge both declined to respond to inquiries from reporters. .
On charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, all four defendants have been indicted. They each could spend up to 15 years behind bars if found guilty.
