A Goffstown woman — half of a husband-wife couple accused last year of selling and mailing body parts stolen from the Harvard Medical School’s morgue — has pleaded guilty to a charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods, according to federal court documents.
Denise Lodge, 63, withdrew her plea of not guilty and changed it to guilty, a court filing dated April 12 shows. She was among six people, including her husband, charged in the scheme.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors dismissed a conspiracy charge against her.
The agreement was approved by Chief Judge Matthew Brann in U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Sentencing has yet to be scheduled. The maximum penalty for a charge of interstate transport of stolen goods is a 10-year prison sentence, a $250,000 fine and supervised release up to three years.
The gruesome scheme allegedly operated from 2018 through 2022, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where one of the defendants lives.
Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, the morgue manager, is accused of letting buyers come into the morgue to pick out body parts they wanted to buy. He allegedly would steal parts of donated cadavers like brains, skin and bones, and bring them to his home to ship them to buyers using the U.S. Postal Service.
Lodge worked in the morgue as part of the Anatomical Gift Program until Harvard Medical School fired him on May 6, 2023.
Also named in the federal indictment were Denise Lodge; Katrina Maclean, 44, owner of a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Mass.; Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota; and Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pennsylvania.
All five were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods. In addition, Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, was charged by criminal information, and Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas.
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, a nationwide network of people bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary.
The charges allege that Cedric Lodge stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations.
Prosecutors claim in court paperwork that Lodge transported stolen remains from Boston to his home in Goffstown and made arrangements for sales via cellphone and social media.
In mid-February, a Massachusetts judge dismissed civil lawsuits filed against Harvard University by families alleging its medical school mishandled and desecrated bodies donated to its anatomical gift program.
According to court paperwork, Harvard Medical School employees are not allowed to “remove, keep, or sell any human remains, in whole or in part, belonging to a donated cadaver.”
In October 2020, Maclean purchased two “dissected human faces” for $600 from Lodge, the indictment states. Taylor sent Denise Lodge a check for $1,000 with the memo line “Head number 7,” documents state.
In November 2020, Taylor later sent another $200 check, with the memo line “braiiiiiins.”
Court documents allege Denise Lodge shipped stolen human remains in the mail from a post office in Manchester.
Maclean sold some of the remains to Jeremy Pauley of Pennsylvania, prosecutors allege, to “tan the skin to create leather,” the indictment reads. Pauley sent the tanned skin back to Maclean in Massachusetts around Aug. 15, 2021.
Another order of skin was allegedly sent to Pauley around Sept. 20, 2021. Maclean confirmed Pauley got the skin because she “wanted to make sure it got to you and I don’t expect agents at my door,” the indictment states.
From September 2018 through July 2021, Taylor sent 39 payments totaling $37,355.56 to Denise Lodge through PayPal, according to the indictment. Pauley sent Maclean about $8,800 through PayPal, officials said, and sent Taylor about $40,050 through PayPal, court documents state.
In all, prosecutors allege Denise Lodge negotiated sales online consisting of 24 hands, two feet, nine spines, sections of skulls, two dissected heads and five dissected human faces, documents show.
