WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The wife of a former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has pleaded guilty to a federal charge after investigators said she shipped stolen human body parts — including hands, feet, and heads — to buyers.
Denise Lodge, 64, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to a charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods, according to court records.
Federal prosecutors last year announced charges against Lodge, her husband Cedric, and five other people in an alleged scheme in which a nationwide network of people bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.
Prosecutors allege that Denise Lodge negotiated online sales of a number of items between 2018 and March 2020 including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces, and two dissected heads, PennLive.com reported.
Authorities said dissected portions of cadavers donated to the school were taken between 2018 and early 2023 without the school's knowledge or permission.
Denise Lodge's attorney, Hope Lefeber, told WBUR in an interview in February that her client's husband "was doing this and she just kind of went along with it." She said "what happened here is wrong" but no one lost money and the matter was "more of a moral and ethical dilemma ... than a criminal case."
Bodies donated to Harvard Medical School are used for education, teaching, or research purposes. Once they are no longer needed, the cadavers are usually cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor's family or buried in a cemetery.
A Pennsylvania man, Jeremy Pauley, pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse in connection to the network in January. A charge for dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity and two charges of receiving stolen property against Pauley were dropped and he was sentenced to two years of probation in March.
During the investigation, police determined that Pauley allegedly purchased remains from Candace Scott, a former mortuary worker in Arkansas, over Facebook Messenger.
The body parts were shipped to Pauley via the U.S. Postal Service, EPTP police say. According to Pennsylvania investigators, Arkansas authorities discovered Scott was stealing the remains from a mortuary owned by UAMS and sending them to Pauley to be resold. The remains belonged to the University of Arkansas, documents state.
Scott was indicted on April 5, 2023, for her involvement in the case, and in May, she pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the case.
According to court filings out of the Eastern District of Arkansas, Scott is expected to appear in court for a plea hearing on April 25, 2024. Her trial date is scheduled for September 22, 2024.
April 2023 report:
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