Former Harvard Morgue Manager Sentenced in Shocking Body Parts Scheme

Need a human face? How about some skin? No problem, if you know the right people. Cedric Lodge and his wife Denise of Goffstown, New Hampshire, were those people.

Boston.com reported, "Authorities said Cedric Lodge was at the center of a ghoulish scheme in which he shipped brains, skin, hands, and faces to buyers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere after cadavers donated to Harvard were no longer needed for research."

The 58-year-old Lodge, former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston, has been sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing body parts and selling them.

Denise Lodge, 65, was sentenced to a year in jail for assisting her husband.

What Prosecutors Say Was Stolen

According to a statement from Brian D. Miller, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, "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 according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school."

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Where the Human Remains Were Sold

"Remains stolen and sold by the Lodges were transported from the morgue in Boston to locations in Salem, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania," Miller said. "Many of the remains purchased from Lodge were resold for a profit."

Boston.com reported, "In one example, Cedric Lodge supplied skin to a buyer so it could be tanned into leather and bound into a book."

Lodge worked as the manager of the Harvard morgue for 28 years.