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Cedric Lodge, 57, had one job, but he messed it up the moment he started a side hustle. The Goffstown, New Hampshire, native was a manager at the Harvard morgue. According to federal authorities, Lodge has entered a guilty plea to stealing and reselling body parts from cadavers donated to the Boston institution.
According to the Department of Justice, the 57-year-old admitted to transferring stolen human remains and then selling them across several states in the US between 2018 and at least March 2020. He was managing the morgue for Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gifts Program.
On Wednesday, during a change of plea hearing in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lodge pleaded guilty to his crimes. His agreement includes a fine of $250,000, along with a potential sentence of 10 years in prison.
The US District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania stated in a press release that he “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 according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school,” reports the Express US.
According to the prosecutors in charge of his case, Lodge was not the only one involved in selling morgue body parts for cash. He allegedly moved the body parts to his home first, where he and his wife, Denise, sold them to buyers in different regions, including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. His spouse is currently awaiting sentencing, as revealed by the prosecutors.
The court documents state that among his other customers, Katrina MacLean from Salem, Massachusetts, and Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, were notable. The prosecution filings further claim that Denise, Lodge’s wife, received at least 39 online payments from Taylor between September 2018 and July 2021. The payments, which totaled over $37,355, also included bizarre notes such as “braiiiiiins” and “head number 7.”
🇺🇸HARVARD MORGUE BOSS SOLD BRAINS, SKIN & FACES… UMM?! WHAT?
Cedric Lodge had one job: manage the morgue at Harvard Medical School and make sure donated bodies were used for science.
Instead? He turned the place into Facebook Marketplace for body parts.
From 2018 to 2023,… pic.twitter.com/owIs14lTDa
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexkennedyIran) April 20, 2025
After buying the parts from Lodge, Katrina MacLean later sold them to other purchasers, including Jeremy Pauley from Pennsylvania. According to the investigators, Pauley requested to “tan the skin to create leather.”
After the scandal unfolded, Harvard Medical School emphasized that he primarily acted alone and there was no other individual particularly involved in his crimes. However, others outside of the school, who were accomplices in Lodge’s side hustle, pleaded guilty as well. Some confessed to transporting the stolen human body parts across the state lines.
According to his indictment, the transaction between his buyers and him exceeds tens of thousands of dollars. “Cedric Lodge was employed as Morgue Manager at Harvard Medical School and, as such, had access to the morgue and the donated cadavers stored in the morgue,” his indictment stated.
Following his indictment, Lodge was fired by the Harvard Medical School in May 2023. The school administrators described his crimes as “abhorrent betrayal” and “morally reprehensible.”
Denise, Lodge’s wife is currently awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty.
Pauley, 41, was previously indicted for buying human body parts from Facebook.
