The former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue and his wife have been sentenced in federal court in Pennsylvania for stealing human remains and selling them.

Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced Tuesday by Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann to eight years in prison. Denise Lodge, 65, was sentenced by Brann to 12 months and one day in prison.

Both previously pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains.

According to a release from Brian D. Miller, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania: Cedric Lodge participated in the sale and interstate transport of human remains stolen from the morgue in Boston from 2018 through at least March 2020 while employed as the morgue manager.

He removed human remains — including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads and other parts — from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school.

Lodge took the remains without the knowledge or permission of his employer, the donor or the donor’s family and transported them to the couple’s home in Goffstown, N.H.

After the couple sold the remains, they shipped them to buyers in other states or the buyer would take possession directly and transport the remains.

Remains stolen and sold by the Lodges were transported from the morgue to locations in Salem, Mass., New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Lodge admitted selling remains to Joshua Taylor, 46, of Wernersville, PA, Andrew Ensanian of Montgomery, Lycoming County, and others.

Taylor pleaded guilty May 15 to interstate transport of stolen human remains.

Taylor admitted he bought the remains knowing they had been stolen from the morgue and transported them from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania from 2018 through 2022.

Taylor is awaiting sentencing.

Many of the remains purchased from Lodge were resold for a profit, including to of Susquehanna County, who pleaded guilty in September 2023 to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Pauley is awaiting sentencing.

Jeremy Lee Pauley (East Pennsboro Township Police Dept. via AP)

“The trafficking of stolen human remains through the U.S. mail is a disturbing act that victimizes already grieving families while also creating a potentially hazardous situation for Postal employees and customers,” said Christopher Nielsen, inspector in charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service. “I hope our efforts, and these sentencings, bring some amount of closure to those affected by this terrible crime.”

These defendants have pleaded guilty: Matthew Lampi of East Bethel, Minn.; Angelo Pereyra of Wichita, Kan.; and Ensanian.

Lampi and Pereyra were sentenced to 15 months and 18 months, respectively, in prison.

Also, Katrina Maclean, 46, of Bradford, Mass., pleaded guilty Dec. 8 to interstate transport of stolen human remains. She admitted buying human remains stolen from the medical school and transporting them to Pennsylvania.

Officials said Maclean also sold the remains to others, including Pauley. Maclean is awaiting sentencing.

Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court in Arkansas and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

— David Mowery | dmowery@readingeagle.com | Reading Eagle