According to the Associated Press (AP), on Friday, the wife of a former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School admitted to her involvement in an alleged ring that trafficked body parts.
In US District Court in Pennsylvania, Denise Lodge, 64, admitted to transporting stolen goods across state lines, as reported by The AP. This plea is in response to the discovery by the authorities that she allegedly assisted in the shipment of stolen human body parts to purchasers nationwide.
According to federal authorities, Denise, her husband Cedric Lodge, and other individuals were involved in a nationwide conspiracy that involved the sale of components from donated bodies that had been stolen from Harvard University, all while the families of the donors remained unaware. According to the New York Post, a number of human remains, including two dozen hands, two feet, and pieces of skulls, were allegedly sold illegally for sums reaching $11,000.
Several additional alleged transactions were allegedly implicated in the case as well. The New York Post said that a store owner in Massachusetts bought a human skull to make a grotesque doll, and that an employee of a mortuary was found to be selling body parts on social media.
“Plaintiff brings this class action on behalf of himself and all other similarly situated individuals whose family members donated and entrusted their deceased bodies into Harvard’s custody for medical research and academic study and whose cadavers were then mishandled, dissected, and/or sold by the HMS morgue manager,” the suit stated, according to AP.
The New York Post reports that on May 6, Cedric was fired from his position at Harvard University. He was accused of coordinating the operation from the mortuary.
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