US Edition9 guilty of trafficking human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School, mortuary
Cedric Lodge received eight years and Denise Lodge one year for stealing and selling body parts from Harvard donors, earning up to $95,000, prosecutors said.
- On Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann sentenced Cedric Lodge, former Harvard Medical School morgue manager, to eight years, capping a two-and-a-half-year scandal.
- Between 2018 and 2022 investigators say Lodge stole organs, brains, skin, hands, feet, spines and skulls from donated cadavers at Harvard Medical School, with arrests in 2023 exposing the four-year scheme.
- Prosecutors say he sold parts to buyers met online, including Facebook groups, and at least once invited a purchaser into the morgue, selling two dissected faces for $600 while Denise Lodge shipped parts and accepted PayPal payments, earning an estimated $40,000 to $95,000.
- Both defendants were ordered to begin their prison terms on Jan. 16, with Denise Lodge sentenced to one year and a day; more than 400 donor families may have been affected as civil suits against Harvard proceed.
- Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin citing online chat evidence and saying the conduct `shocks the conscience`, while Patrick Casey said `There is undoubtedly a level of numbness or lack of appreciation for the sensitivities of the general public.
138 Articles
138 Articles
Cedric L. is said to have sold brains, skin and hands among others. The body parts came from bodies donated to the Havard University for research purposes. Now he has to go to prison.
The sentence that Cedric Lodge, former director of Harvard Medical College necrotrie, spent eight years in prison this week detailing the final fate of parts of human bodies that should have been burned or returned to families. According to the charge, brains, skin, hands, faces and heads were treated “like buggings” and sent to buyers in different states after the use of corpses in scientific research.
Harvard University Mortuary Manager Sentenced for Stealing and Selling Human Remains · Global Voices
The coroner and his wife stole organs, skin, heads and other members of the bodies donated to the Faculty for investigation.
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