Ex-Harvard Morgue Manager Indicted for Allegedly Selling ‘Braiiiiiins’ and Other Body Parts to a Very Enthusiastic Customer

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Federal prosecutors filed charges against a group of individuals who were allegedly involved in a morbid scheme to steal, sell and ship human body parts from the morgue at Harvard Medical School.

Court documents reviewed by multiple outlets show that Cedric Lodge, a former morgue manager at Harvard Med, stands accused of stealing “dissected portions of donated cadavers, including…heads, brains, skin, bones, and other human remains, without the knowledge or permission of (the school).” The body parts came from corpses that were donated to the school for research and educational purposes.

Lodge’s wife, Denise, was also accused of working with her husband to sell the remains to others, who’ve also been charged with conspiracy and transporting stolen goods across state lines. One of the accused buyers/distributors is Katrina Maclean, owner of Kat’s Creepy Creations, which is described as a store that sells “creepy dolls,” “oddities” and other merchandise dealing in the macabre.

The indictment claims that Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and another client into the morgue to let them choose which body parts they wanted to buy. MacLean allegedly paid Lodge for two dissected faces in one instance, and she also sold other body parts to other purchasers, including a buyer who bought human skin from her and had it tanned into leather.

It gets darker, per CNN:

[Joshua] Taylor has paid over $37,000 through 39 PayPal payments to the Lodges for the body parts, prosecutors said.

On May 19, 2019, Taylor allegedly sent a $1,000 payment to Denise Lodge with the memo, “head number 7.” In November 2020, Taylor allegedly sent $200 with a memo reading, “braiiiiiins.”

Both Maclean and Taylor are accused of accepting nearly $50,000 in PayPal payments in 2021 and 2022 from the same man in Pennsylvania for the stolen human remains, the indictment said.

Harvard Medical deans George Daley and Edward Hundert released a statement to condemn the “disturbing” scheme, saying:

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. We are so very sorry 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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