Federal Prosecutors Seek 10-Year Sentence for Former Harvard Morgue Manager Who Sold Human Remains

Federal prosecutors recommended a 10-year sentence for Cedric Lodge, who pleaded guilty to trafficking stolen human remains during his time as manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue, in a memorandum filed on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued that Lodge’s “unusually heinous, cruel, and degrading” conduct warrants the maximum sentence for the offense — a decade in federal prison.

In May, Lodge admitted to removing organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from bodies donated to the morgue for HMS research purposes during the period from 2018 through March 2020.

Lodge, with the help of his wife Denise Lodge, then transported and sold the remains to buyers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, according to his guilty plea. Prosecutors allege Lodge made somewhere between $40,000 and $95,000 out of the scheme.

The government asserted that Lodge’s actions constituted a “human rights violation” and “led to a cascade of harm to Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, and the Anatomical Gift Program.”

“The theft and sale of remains not only robbed individuals but also robbed science of invaluable contributions from every victim whose sacrifice was exploited,” the wife of an individual who donated his body to the HMS morgue wrote in a letter to the court, which was quoted in the memorandum. She asked the court to issue the maximum sentence.

Prosecutors also entered a sentencing memorandum for Cedric Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, on Tuesday, seeking a year of imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to the interstate transport of stolen goods and human remains.

Denise Lodge’s attorneys suggested that due to severe medical issues, lack of a criminal record, and “deep remorse” over her actions, she should be sentenced to probation, instead of jail time.

According to the government’s filing, Denise Lodge orchestrated the shipment and sale of many body parts stolen by her husband from HMS’s morgue.

In October, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts allowed a separate civil lawsuit brought by victims’ families against Harvard to proceed to discovery. The court’s order reversed a Suffolk Superior Court judge’s earlier decision to dismiss the families’ case against Harvard in February of 2024, which the families appealed.

Another key figure in the case — Katrina Maclean, who bought and sold human remains out of her shop in Peabody, Massachusetts — agreed in October to plead guilty. Prosecutors said she purchased dissected faces and human skin from Cedric Lodge, who allowed her to enter the facility to select her items for purchase.

Maclean’s motion to withdraw her initial plea of “not guilty” to a charge of interstate transport of stolen goods was granted on Monday. She has since entered her plea of “guilty” in its place.

Sentencing dates have yet to be set for Cedric and Denise Lodge or for Maclean. The maximum expected penalty for interstate transport of remains involves 10 years in prison, a fine, and a period of supervised release.

–Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.

—Staff writer Ella F. Niederhelman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @eniederhelman.