By Ricardo Lezama 
Cedric Lodge, a now ex-Harvard Medical School’s morgue manager, is now facing federal charges for stealing body parts as part of a human-remains trafficking conspiracy involving his wife and others. The charge was filed in the state of Pennsylvania. Some of his principal duties included storage and embalming of human remains.
In March of this year, Harvard was contacted by the FBI regarding Lodge’s activities. At that point, Harvard launched an internal investigation and dismissed him from his post shortly thereafter.
Lodge was formerly a long-time employee of Harvard. In a very responsible way, Harvard provided the following description of his duties and overview on a website dedicated to victims of his activities:
- “Cedric Lodge was hired on February 6, 1995, and was terminated on May 6, 2023. During this time, he took two leaves of employment: from Sept. 1, 2021, to Feb. 27, 2022, and from Feb. 14, 2023, until his termination on May 6, 2023. Importantly, the unsealed federal indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania charges Lodge with the unlawful interstate transport of stolen human remains during a specific timeframe — from “in or about 2018 through on or about August 16, 2022” — and not during the entirety of his employment at HMS.”
US Attorney Gerard M. Karam noted that the conspiracy was “particularly egregious” and “appalling” due to the victims having donated their remains for educational and scientific purposes. Ironically, a long-held fear among the general population who refuse to label themselves as donors is that their body parts would get sold for profit. Dispelling the notion will be a tough road for other medical institutions.
Named in the indictment were Katrina MacLean of Salem, Massachusetts, who ran a studio called “Kat’s Creepy Creations,” and Joshua Taylor, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania. Denise Lodge, the wife of the manager, is accused of shipping the remains and operating a PayPal account which received $37,355 in proceeds from the conspiracy.
Harvard Medical’s deans expressed their shock at the alleged crimes in a statement, and a web page has been set up for donor families and next of kin with resources.