Former Harvard morgue manager Cedric Lodge sentenced for selling body parts

Goffstown, New Hampshire: Cedric Lodge, former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for stealing body parts from donated cadavers and selling them across state lines, prosecutors said.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cedric Lodge, 58, removed human remains—including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other body parts—from cadavers donated for medical research. Many of the items were later resold for profit.

Prosecutors described the operation as a “macabre scheme spanning several years.” Lodge allegedly took the remains after they were no longer needed for research but before they were returned to families for cremation. He transported the body parts to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and sold them between 2018 and March 2020.

According to Metro, in one case, Lodge provided human skin to a buyer who intended to tan it into leather and bind it into a book. In another instance, Cedric and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold a man’s face.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan Martin wrote in a court filing that the face may have been kept “on a shelf” or used for “something even more disturbing.”

Prosecutors said the crimes were committed for the amusement of members of the so-called “oddities” community.

His wife, Denise Lodge was sentenced to one year in prison for her role in facilitating the sale of stolen organs and body parts.

Cedric Lodge managed the morgue at Harvard Medical School for 28 years before being arrested in 2023.

Lodge’s attorney, Patrick Casey, requested leniency, stating that his client acknowledged “the harm his actions have inflicted on both the deceased persons whose bodies he callously degraded and their grieving families.”

At least six other individuals, including an employee at an Arkansas crematorium, have pleaded guilty in connection with the wider investigation into body-parts trafficking, prosecutors said.