Nationwide — Cedric Lodge, a former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston, was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling human body parts. Prosecutors said the illegal operation lasted for years and involved buyers across multiple states.
Federal authorities said Lodge, 58, carried out the operation while overseeing donated cadavers at Harvard, where he worked as a morgue manager for 28 years. After the bodies were no longer needed for research or teaching, he removed body parts and shipped them to buyers in Pennsylvania and other locations, according to WLBT.
Investigators said the items included brains, skin, hands, and faces. In one case, Lodge supplied skin so it could be tanned into leather and bound into a book, a situation prosecutors described as a “deeply horrifying reality.”
“In another, Cedric and Denise Lodge sold a man’s face — perhaps to be kept on a shelf, perhaps to be used for something even more disturbing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan Martin said in a court filing. Prosecutors said Lodge collected thousands of dollars from 2018 through March 2020.
His wife, Denise Lodge, helped with the scheme and was sentenced to just over a year in prison. Both appeared in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Lodge expressed regret during sentencing and admitted he removed body parts before cremation, violating the trust placed in Harvard’s body donation program. His attorney called the actions “egregious” and acknowledged the harm caused to grieving families.
After charges were filed in 2023, Harvard Medical School suspended its body donation program for five months. Prosecutors said the investigation uncovered a broader trafficking network, with at least six other people, including a crematorium worker in Arkansas, pleading guilty.