Harvard Medical School’s Morgue Scandal Shocks Medical Community as Body Parts Trafficking Ring Uncovered
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team May 24, 2025 3 weeks, 4 days, 17 hours, 11 minutes ago
Medical News: In an unsettling revelation that has rocked the medical and academic communities, the former head of the morgue at Harvard Medical School has pleaded guilty to participating in a nationwide network trafficking in human remains. Cedric Lodge, 57, admitted to stealing and selling parts of cadavers that were donated to the university for scientific and educational purposes.
Harvard Medical School’s Morgue Scandal Shocks Medical Community as Body Parts Trafficking Ring Uncovered
Lodge was entrusted with the care of bodies gifted to Harvard for medical research. Instead, from 2018 to early 2020, he secretly removed organs, skin, hands, faces, brains, and even entire dissected heads from cadavers after their research use had concluded. These remains were intended to be respectfully disposed of in accordance with the donors’ agreements. However, Lodge took them without permission, stored them at his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and, along with his wife, Denise Lodge, sold them to a network of body part collectors across multiple states. This
Medical News report highlights a disturbing breach of trust in one of America’s most prestigious institutions.
According to court documents released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the stolen body parts were transported from the Harvard morgue in Boston to locations including Salem in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and various towns in Pennsylvania. Some buyers retrieved the remains themselves, while others received them by mail. Prosecutors confirmed that many of the body parts were resold at a profit by buyers like Jeremy Pauley, who had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen human remains.
Multiple individuals connected to the scheme have now entered guilty pleas. These include Lodge’s wife, Denise, as well as others such as Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra. Lampi received a 15-month prison sentence, while Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months. Meanwhile, another participant, Candace Chapman-Scott, who had stolen human remains from a crematorium in Arkansas and sold them to Pauley, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by an Arkansas federal court.
The investigation, led by the FBI, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and local police in Pennsylvania, uncovered a disturbing underground trade in human remains that exploited donor generosity and disrespected the deceased and their families. Cedric Lodge now faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the interstate transport of stolen human remains.
The implications of this case go far beyond just criminal conduct. It raises serious concerns about oversight and ethics in medical institutions, particularly those trusted with handling donor bodies. Harvard Medical School has since issued statements condemning the actions and has pledged to review and strengthen its procedures and oversight regarding its anatomical donation program.
In conclusion, this shocking betrayal of public trust at one
of the world’s most renowned medical institutions has exposed vulnerabilities in systems meant to honor the deceased and their contributions to science. It has also left many questioning how such a scandal could have gone undetected for so long and what reforms are urgently needed to prevent similar violations in the future.
For more details:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/former-harvard-morgue-manager-pleads-guilty-trafficking-stolen-human-remains
For the latest on corrupted and decadent Western institutions, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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