REUTERS
The former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School was among five people indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday over allegations they stole and sold body parts from cadavers donated to the school, federal prosecutors said.
Cedric Lodge, 55, who was fired from his job on May 6, and the other defendants were accused of carrying out a black market body parts scheme from roughly 2018 to 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a statement. One of the defendants lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said Lodge, who was hired by Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1995, would at times let potential buyers into the school’s morgue to examine cadavers and select what parts to buy. The buyers mostly resold the body parts, prosecutors said.
A sixth person was previously charged in Arkansas in the same investigation on suspicion of stealing body parts from a mortuary she worked for, prosecutors said. Reuters has previously reported on abuses in the body trade business.
It was not immediately clear if Lodge, who was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday according to ABC News citing the FBI, or the others indicted, who included Lodge’s wife, had legal representation. The FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
