Indictment: PA Man Bought Human Remains in Alleged Trafficking Ring

A man with what appear to be metal spikes implanted in his scalp is one of seven charged with trafficking human remains, including two stillborn infants.

United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam alleges the nationwide network trafficked remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary, according to a press release.

Cedric Lodge, 55, manager of the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, “stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations,” Karam said. The indictment alleges his wife Denise Lodge, 63, would transport the remains back to their Pennsylvania home and sell them online to Katrina Maclean, 44, in Massachusetts and Joshua Taylor, 46, in Pennsylvania.

Lodge allegedly allowed his clients to enter the morgue to shop for what they wanted. He was fired May 7, the New York Post reported.

“Some crimes defy understanding,” Karam said in a press release. “The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human. It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling.”

Maclean and Taylor resold the human remains to Jeremy Pauley, 41, from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania — the man with the metal spikes in his head. Investigators discovered that he also purchased remains from Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas. She stole human remains from the mortuary and crematorium where she worked. Scott sold and shipped the remains of two stillborn infants to Pauley.

Pauley exchanged over $100,000 in online payments with Matthew Lampi, 52, in East Bethel, Minnesota, for various remains.

If convicted the defendants could face up to 15 years behind bars.