Overview

• Cedric Lodge, former Harvard Medical School morgue manager, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of interstate transport of stolen goods.
• The plea deal includes dropping remaining charges of conspiracy and additional transport counts, with a pending hearing to finalize the agreement.
• From 2018 to early 2023, Lodge operated within a nationwide network that stole and sold human remains from Harvard and an Arkansas mortuary.
• Prosecutors allege Lodge allowed buyers into the morgue to select body parts, which he then transported to his home and shipped to clients, some of whom used the remains for macabre purposes.
• The case has raised ethical concerns over oversight of body donation programs, as families of donors express outrage over the misuse of their loved ones’ remains.