Woman admits stealing and selling human corpse parts

WILLIAMSPORT — The wife of a former Harvard Medical School morgue director has pleaded guilty to a federal charge after investigators said he sent stolen human body parts — including hands, feet and heads — to buyers.

Denise Lodge, 64, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, according to court records.

Last year, federal prosecutors announced charges against Desine Lodge, her husband Cedric and five others over an alleged scheme in which a nationwide network of people bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a morgue in Arkansas.

Prosecutors allege that Denise Lodge negotiated online sales of a series of items between 2018 and March 2020, including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads, reported the news site PennLive.com.

Authorities said dissected portions of cadavers donated to the school were taken between 2018 and 2023 without the school’s knowledge or permission.

A Pennsylvania man, Jeremy Pauley of Thompson, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Blame the husband

Denise Lodge’s attorney, Hope Lefeber, told public broadcaster WBUR in an interview in February that her client’s husband “was doing this and she just accepted it.”

“Moral dilemma”

“What happened here is wrong,” but no one lost money and the issue is “more of a moral and ethical dilemma than a criminal case,” he said.