Human body parts that ended up sold via social media and a place called Kat’s Creepy Creations were stolen from Harvard Medical School, say federal officials, who allege the school's morgue manager was the one who took the remains. A federal indictment accuses Cedric Lodge, 55, of taking heads, brains, bones, skin, and more from dissected donated cadavers prior to their scheduled cremations and bringing them to his New Hampshire home. Lodge and his wife, Denise Lodge, then sold the body parts via social media, per court documents, which flag some of the alleged buyers who have also been charged with trafficking human remains.
Katrina MacLean of Salem, who officials say paid $600 for two faces, allegedly sold the parts at Kat's Creepy Creations, reports Mass Live. Joshua Taylor of Pennsylvania made 39 PayPal payments to Denise Lodge totaling $37,355.56 over a nearly 3-year period, with the payments referencing "head number 7" and "braiiiiiins," per the documents. The scheme allegedly ran from 2018 until March of this year, and in some cases, Lodge allegedly let the buyers come to the morgue to select what they wanted to buy. NBC Boston reports he was fired May 6.
A message from the medical school's dean on Wednesday titled an "abhorrent betrayal" described Lodge's alleged actions as "morally reprehensible" and said it was "examining our own records, particularly the logs showing when donor remains were sent to be cremated and when Lodge was on campus, to try to determine which anatomical donors may have been impacted."
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"Some crimes defy understanding," said US Attorney Gerard M. Karam in a release. "The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human. It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. ... With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims." (More body parts stories.)
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