Former Harvard Morgue Manager Pleads Guilty To Selling Stolen Human Remains

The former manager of the Harvard Medical School Morgue this week pled guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains.

Acting U.S. Attorney Attorney John Gurganus in Pennsylvania reported that Cedric Lodge, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, admitted that, from 2018 through at least March 2020, he participated in the sale and interstate transport of human remains stolen from the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston. Lodge removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of in accordance with the anatomical gift donation agreements between the donors and the school.

Officials said Lodge took the remains without the knowledge or permission of his employer, the donor, or the donor’s family, and transported the remains to his home in New Hampshire where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains to locations in Salem, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.

Several other defendants, including Lodge’s wife. have previously entered guilty pleas in related cases.

Families who believe their loved ones’ body parts were mishandled in an unlawful scheme for profit by the school’s former morgue manager sued Harvard Medical School and the morgue operators and employees in 2023. However, in February, 2024, a Massachusetts judge threw out the complaints, ruling that Harvard and the program’s operators are protected from suit under a state statute granting qualified immunity to those receiving bodies under anatomical gift programs.

Citing Immunity Law, Judge Tosses Body Parts Theft Claims Against Harvard

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Kenneth W. Salinger said that the allegations in the complaints did not plausibly suggest that Harvard and the program operators failed to act in good faith in receiving and handling the donated bodies, or that they were legally responsible for the former morgue manager’s alleged misconduct, as would be required to overcome the qualified immunity granted by the Massachusetts version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA).

Also, the judge noted that the families did not allege that Harvard employees were allowed to remove, keep, or sell human body parts, that any of the Harvard defendants knew what Lodge was doing, or that any of the Harvard operators gave Lodge permission to do so.

The maximum penalty facing Lodge under federal law for this offense is 10 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine.

In separate but related litigation, Liberty Mutual sought and won a declaratory judgment in March, 2024 that it was not obligated to defend or indemnify Lodge against the civil lawsuits under homeowners insurance policies it issued to Lodge from 2020 to 2023.

Topics Fraud