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Former Harvard University employee Cedric Lodge, 57, entered a guilty plea to a federal charge of interstate transport of human remainsAn indictment obtained by PEOPLE says Lodge stole and then sold “head, brains, skins, bones, and other human remains” from the morgue at Harvard Medical SchoolCedric’s wife Denise entered a guilty plea to the same charge last year after sending remains to one man who wrote “human head 7” and “braiiiiiiins” in two of his payment memos
A Harvard employee accused of stealing body parts from a morgue at the university and selling them for a profit entered a guilty plea to a federal charge of interstate transport of human remains this week.
Cedric Lodge, 57, was the manager of the Harvard Medical School Morgue when he committed these offenses, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Over a five-year period, Lodge stole and then sold “head, brains, skins, bones, and other human remains” to individuals with the knowledge of the medical school, according to a copy of a federal indictment obtained by PEOPLE.
A man in Pennsylvania paid Lodge’s wife Denise $37,355.16 over a period of three years, the indictment says, after she allegedly shipped the man body parts her husband took from the morgue.
The indictment says that those payments were sent via PayPal and allegedly included memos such as “head number 7” and “braiiiiiiins.”
Denise Lodge.
Steven Porter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Lodge also supplied a woman from Massachusetts with skin that he knew she was sending to be tanned, according to the indictment.
That same woman also met Lodge at the morgue on at least one occasion so he could provide her with “two dissected faces,” the indictment says.
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The parts were all taken from the cadavers of individuals who had donated their body to Harvard upon their death, according to federal prosecutors.
Lodge would allegedly mine what he could after these cadavers had been used for research and teaching purposes, but before they could be disposed of according to the agreement between the individual or their family.
Harvard offers to cremate, bury or return every donated body it receives as per the wishes of the deceased or their family, and keeps a careful record of the remains.
Lodge’s wife Denise previously entered a guilty plea to interstate transport of human remains in April of last year, but has not yet been sentenced in that case.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a statement. “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.”
Nick Pichowicz.
Darlene Lynch
PEOPLE previously spoke with the family of Nick Pichowicz, whose body parts were among those stolen and sold after he donated his body to Harvard.
His daughter Darlene Lynch told PEOPLE that she called twice to determine if her dad was on the list of stolen remains, saying: “(We) wanted to make sure it was right. We were hoping it wasn’t.”
Learning that it was true left his son, Nicholas Pichowicz, “shocked, sad and angry,” he told PEOPLE.
“We feel extremely betrayed by these individuals and the school,” he added.
The family said at the time they were working to get back the body of their mother, whose remains had also been donated to the medical school.
The family members also expressed their frustration with being informed about this news by authorities, with Lynch saying she found out while reading a local news article.
“Even now I get this nauseous feeling,” she said of learning what happened to her father. “When I first heard about it, I wanted to throw up. It’s just sickening that people can do this. It’s crazy, messed up, unimaginable.”
Lodge will now be subject to an investigation by the United States Probation Office, after which the judge will issue his sentence in the case.
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