Harvard morgue director sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing organs and human remains
The former director of the morgue at Harvard Medical School received a heavy sentence after being found guilty of involvement in a ring that stole and sold organs from corpses. His wife was also convicted of complicity.
The director of the Harvard morgue, sentenced to eight years in prison PHOTO: X/ @MarioNawfal
Cedric Lodge, 58, and his wife Denise Lodge, 65, were arrested in May 2023 after investigators discovered they were involved in the illegal trafficking of human remains. Cedric Lodge, who headed the mortuary at Harvard Medical School until May 2023, served from 2018 to 2022 on a “national network of individuals who bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and an Arkansas morgue,” according to the US Department of Justice.
The director of the morgue at the prestigious university, one of the oldest in the United States and located near Boston, “he steals organs and other parts of corpses given to science for medical research and education, before they are cremated“, informs AFP, quoted by Agerpres.
The Department of Justice states that Cedric Lodge “a removed human remains, especially organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads and other parts from corpses given for research and study purposes”. These remains were taken “fwithout the knowledge of his employerof the donor and his family” and transported to his home in New Hampshire.
“After he and his wife Denise Lodge sold human remains, they would ship them to buyers in other states or the buyer would directly come into their possession and transport them himself”the department also explained, emphasizing that the human remains were “resold at a profit“.
