The mortuary manager allegedly sold donated body parts to Harvard Medical School for his own gain. This is according to federal authorities.
From 2018 through 2022, Cedric Lodge, the morgue’s director, and his wife Denise were in charge of carrying out the plan. Joshua Taylor and Katrina MacLean were recognized by the feds as regular customers.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” the United States said. Attorney Gerard M. Karam. “Theft and trafficking in human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human.”
The contents of the mortuary at Harvard Medical School, including heads, brains, skin, and bones, were allegedly stolen, according to the government. The donated body parts had been given to the school for instructional purposes.
Federal prosecutors assert that instead of leaving them in the morgue for student use, the Lodges saw an opportunity to make money. They allegedly allowed potential buyers to tour the morgue and select exactly what they wanted.
The body parts would then be transported by Lodge 60 miles north to his residence in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he would send them to clients like MacLean and Taylor, according to the authorities.
Taylor purchased various body parts from Denise Lodge for more than $37,300 over a three-year period, according to the indictment. He once sent $200 through PayPal with the message “braiiiiins.”
The bones were illegally stolen from the Lodges and Harvard Medical School, the government claims, and MacLean and Taylor then sold them. MacLean had a store named Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts. In the meanwhile, Taylor is accused of selling the body parts to Jeremy Pauley, a citizen of central Pennsylvania.
The feds claim that Pauley paid Taylor and MacLean, respectively, roughly $9,000 and $40,000 for different body parts.
According to a Justice Department press statement, Pauley was charged separately with criminal information; as a result, he was not included as a defendant in the indictment. The difference shows that Pauley and the government have already come to a plea deal.
Pauley was apprehended by local law enforcement last year after he bought stolen body parts from an Arkansas morgue.
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