Morgue manager accused of stealing donated body parts

According to authorities, a former mortuary manager at Harvard Medical School is suspected of stealing and selling donated body parts as part of a national plan from 2018 through 2022.

Driving the news: According to a Justice Department statement, the school was also a victim in the case. Cedric Lodge, 55, and his wife Denise Lodge, 63, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, were indicte alongside several others by a federal jury in Pennsylvania and now face charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods.

Lodge is accuse of stealing organs and other body parts donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations. Manager and his wife allegedly sold the remains to Katrina Maclean and Joshua Taylor, making arrangements via cellular telephone and social media websites.

Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Candace Chapman Scott, 36, of Little Rock, Arkansas, were charge with theft of body parts. Maclean and Taylor are accuse of reselling the stolen remains for profit, including to Pauley, who allegedly bought purchased stolen human remains from Scott. Scott pleaded not guilty in April to charges related to the theft of body parts.

Scott allegedly stole parts of cadavers she was suppose to have cremated, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies. She sold the stolen remains to Pauley, who is accuse of selling them on to other individuals, buying and selling them over an extended period of time and exchanging over $100,000 in online payments. Prosecutors allege that Scott stole parts of cadavers she was suppose to have cremated, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies.