OAN’s Geraldyn Berry
4:50 PM – Wednesday, June 14, 2023
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has announced the indictment of six individuals who are accused of selling stolen human body parts, including the remains from cadavers at Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary.
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Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts, Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania, Denise Lodge, 63, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, were indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charges. Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, was charged by Criminal Information, and Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The allegations state that between 2018 and 2022, Cedric Lodge, who held the position of morgue manager for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, engaged in the theft of organs and other body parts from cadavers donated for medical research and education. These thefts occurred prior to the scheduled cremations of the cadavers. Lodge sometimes transported the stolen remains from Boston to his residence in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Cedric and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the stolen remains to individuals such as Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, and others. The transactions were arranged through phone calls and social media platforms.
In certain instances, Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and Taylor access to the morgue at Harvard Medical School, permitting them to examine the cadavers and select which parts they wished to purchase. Taylor, at times, transported the stolen remains back to Pennsylvania, while the Lodges shipped stolen remains to Taylor and other individuals residing outside of Massachusetts.
Maclean and Taylor profited from the resale of the stolen remains, including selling them to Jeremy Pauley in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Additionally, Pauley purchased stolen human remains from Candace Chapman Scott, an employee at a mortuary and crematorium in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Scott unlawfully took parts from cadavers she was entrusted to cremate, many of which had been donated and used for research and educational purposes by Harvard Medical School. She also stole the bodies of two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned to their families as cremains. Scott sold these stolen remains to Pauley, shipping them to him in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Pauley, in turn, sold a significant number of the stolen remains he had acquired, including to Matthew Lampi. Lampi and Pauley engaged in an extensive period of buying and selling stolen remains from each other, amounting to over $100,000 in online payments exchanged between them.
The event was addressed by Harvard Medical School (HMS) in a statement headlined “An abhorrent betrayal.“
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus – a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” the statement read. “The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research.”
The statement concluded with the prestigious medical school offering their sympathy “for the pain this news will cause for our anatomical donors’ families and loved ones, and HMS pledges to engage with them during this deeply distressing time.”
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