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Left: Cedric Lodge (WBTS). Right: Jeremy Pauley (Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office).
Those who donated their remains to Harvard Medical School likely did so with the belief that their bodies would be used just for research and teaching.
The morgue manager, however, had different plans: He stole the remains — and sold them for profit.
That man, Cedric Lodge, 57, pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains on Wednesday in a Pennsylvania federal court, authorities announced.
He follows his wife, Denise Lodge, and others in admitting wrongdoing.
According to prosecutors, Cedric Lodge, who no longer serves as the morgue manager, admitted that he participated in the remains-smuggling ring from 2018 through at least March 2020. Items he stole and brought to his home in New Hampshire included organs, brains, skin, faces, and heads. He and his wife then sold the remains to buyers in Salem, Massachusetts, as well as New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said.
Those buyers allegedly included co-defendant Joshua Taylor.
Between Sept. 3, 2018, through July 12, 2021, Taylor sent 39 payments, totaling $37,355.56, to a PayPal account that Denise Lodge operated, authorities said. On May 19, 2019, he sent her $10,000 with a memo reading “head number 7,” documents stated.
On Nov. 20, 2020, Taylor sent her $200 with a memo reading “braiiiiiins.”
Prosecutors say that another man, Jeremy Pauley, purchased remains from Lodge customer Katrina Maclean.
Maclean’s federal case is ongoing, but Pauley has pleaded guilty in state and federal court. He had purchased remains from Candace Chapman-Scott, a crematorium employee from Arkansas.
“Several other defendants have previously entered guilty pleas in related cases, including Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra,” authorities said Thursday in light of Cedric Lodge’s guilty plea. “Lampi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months. Denise Lodge and Joshua Taylor are still awaiting sentencing. Additionally, Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.”
