Spouse of ex-Harvard morgue supervisor pleads responsible to transporting stolen human stays
The spouse of a former Harvard Medical College morgue supervisor has pleaded responsible to a federal cost after investigators stated she shipped stolen human physique elements – together with arms, ft and heads – to patrons.
Denise Lodge, 64, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded responsible on Friday in US District Court docket within the Center District of Pennsylvania to a cost of interstate transport of stolen items, in accordance with courtroom data.
Federal prosecutors final yr introduced prices towards Lodge, her husband Cedric and 5 different individuals in an alleged scheme during which a nationwide community of individuals purchased and offered human stays stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.
Prosecutors allege that Denise Lodge negotiated on-line gross sales of quite a few objects between 2028 and March 2020 together with two dozen arms, two ft, 9 spines, parts of skulls, 5 dissected human faces and two dissected heads, PennLive.com reported.
Harvard morgue supervisor charged with promoting stolen physique elements
Harvard morgue supervisor charged with promoting stolen physique elements
Authorities stated dissected parts of cadavers donated to the college have been taken between 2018 and early 2023 with out the college’s data or permission. A Pennsylvania man, Jeremy Pauley of Thompson, is awaiting sentencing after pleading responsible final yr to conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen property.
Denise Lodge’s lawyer, Hope Lefeber, instructed WBUR in an interview in February that her shopper’s husband “was doing this and she or he simply form of went together with it”. She stated “what occurred right here is fallacious” however nobody misplaced cash and the matter was “extra of a ethical and moral dilemma … than a felony case”.
Our bodies donated to Harvard Medical College are used for training, educating or analysis functions. As soon as they’re now not wanted, the cadavers are normally cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor’s household or buried in a cemetery.