How Harvard morgue manager sold human body parts through Facebook
‘Know anyone in the market for an embalmed brain?’: Inside the horrific illegal body parts trade where Harvard morgue manager and Arkansas funeral home employee ‘sold skulls, hearts, genitals, skin and fetal remains through Facebook oddities group’
- Funeral home worker Candace Chapman Scott sold $10,975 worth of body parts
- Cedric and Denise Lodge are accused of selling human remains from Harvard
- READ MORE: Inside house of horrors where couple allegedly stored and sold human heads, skin, bones and brains stolen from Harvard morgue
A Harvard University morgue manager and an Arkansas funeral home employee are accused of stealing human body parts and selling them on the black market in grisly cross-country scheme.
Cedric Lodge, 55, and Candace Chapman Scott, 36, are both facing up to 15 years in prison along with five others involved in the macabre underground network dealing in stolen brains, hearts, skin and fetal remains.
Lodge is said to have stolen remains from cadavers donated to the prestigious Harvard’s Medical School – which he had access to as morgue manager. He had worked there since 1995 until he was fired on May 6.
Scott worked at a funeral home in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was contracted to transport cadavers for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) since 2014.
Her role required her to move the bodies to the UAMS campus and return the remains – which had been cremated – back to UAMS within 72 hours.
Candace Chapman Scott, 36, (left) allegedly sold $10,975 of body parts to Jeremy Pauley, 41, (right) after meeting on a Facebook group dedicated to buying, selling and trading ‘oddities’
Scott worked at a funeral home in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was contracted to transport cadavers for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) since 2014
Both Scott and Jeremy Pauley, 41, were members of a Facebook group dedicated to buying, selling and trading ‘oddities,’ which run the gamut from antiques and toys to witchcraft supplies.
Federal court documents filed in Arkansas say that Scott first reached out to Pauley in October 2021 with a message that said: ‘I follow your page and work and LOVE it. I’m a mortician and work at a trade service mortuary.
‘We are contracted through the medical hospital here in Little Rock to cremate their cadavers when the medical students are done with them before they discard them in a cremation garden.
‘Just out of curiosity, would you know anyone in the market for a fully intact [sic], embalmed brain?’
Her indictment states that she did not have an active mortician’s license at the time of the incident, and was not authorized to harvest organs, tissues, or bones, or dismember a corpse.
Over a nine-month-period Pauley allegedly paid Scott $10,975 for various body parts – including a heart, brains, liver, kidney, trachea, ears, ‘two fake boobies’, lungs, skin, a penis, testicles, a whole head and two fetus’.
She took pictures of the organs in her apartment and sent them to Pauley using the United states Postal Service, telling him on one occasion that one of the fetuses was ‘not in great shape’ so he could have a lower price, the indictment claims.
Scott is said to have messaged: ‘I am going to get some ice packs tomorrow since our Walmart and dollar store was out by my house and hopefully get the little guy shipped tomorrow.’
Federal court documents filed in Arkansas say that Scott first reached out to Pauley (pictured with his girlfriend) in October 2021
Scott did not have an active mortician’s license at the time of the incident, and was not authorized to harvest organs, tissues, or bones, or dismember a corpse
Another message relating to a sale added that she wanted to flog ‘7 huge pieces of skin, 2 large pieces of skin with tiddy, 4 brains one with skull cap, 1 lung, one penis, 2 testicles, and 3 hearts.’
Lodge had worked at Harvard Medical School’s morue since 1995 until he was fired on May 6
She is facing 12 criminal counts: one count each of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud; four counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud; and one count each of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and interstate transportation of stolen property.
Court records show she has been held without bail since April and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Pauley had previously been arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities.
He also sells bone dust dice as well as other macabre items from his collection online.
A separate indictment in Pennsylvania claims that Pauley also spent $40,049 buying body parts from Josh Taylor – who had purchased them from Cedric Lodge.
Pauley also created bone fragment and dust dominoes, which he is selling on his Facebook page
Scott messaged asking Pauley if he wanted to buy a fetus, and sent images of the remains on Facebook
Pauley also sells bone dust dice as well as other macabre items from his collection online with his girlfriend – who has not been charged in any of the indictments
From at least April 2021 to January 2022, it is alleged that Taylor, of Pennsylvania, sold human remains he bought from Lodge at a higher price to Pauley.
Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania on Wednesday and was also released.
Lodge is accused of taking heads, skin, bones and brains from cadavers donated to Harvard’s Medical School.
A federal incitement revealed that ‘at times’ he would take them to his home in New Hampshire, and his wife Denise, 63, would ship the illicit goods to others in their network using the USPS.
The couple moved from their four-bedroom and three-bathroom $385,000 property in Manchester to a smaller three-bed and two-bath house in Goffstown in 2020, where they are accused of continuing their gristly scheme.
Court documents state that Denise sent ‘stolen human remains’ from Manchester to Montgomery, Pennsylvania, in 2018 and 2019.
From at least April 2021 to January 2022 Taylor, of Pennsylvania, sold human remains that he bought from Lodge at a higher price to Pauley
Pauley (pictured) is accused of reselling the remains he received to others, including tattoo artist Matthew Lampi
In October 2020 Maclean sold two dissected faces and skin to Pauley for $600, who was hired to tan the skin and make it into leather before shipping it back to MacLean
MacLean, 44, (pictured) appeared in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon, where she was charged with transporting stolen goods and granted bail
From 3 September 2018, through to 12 July 2021, Taylor sent 39 transactions through PayPal to Denise Lodge for a total of $37,355.56, the indictment states.
One payment of $1,000 was referenced as being for ‘head number 7’, while another in November 2020 was sent for ‘braiiiiins’ – which cost $200.
Lodge and his wife were released on conditions after appearing in federal court in New Hampshire.
Pauley had previously been arrested and charged for abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities
He is also accused of selling the remains to Katrina MacLean, a doll maker from Salem, Massachusetts.
On more than one occasion Lodge is accused of allowing MacLean and Taylor access to the morgue to choose what remains to purchase.
MacLean owned and operated a business called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts, where she stored and sold the remains.
The 44-year-old appeared in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon, where she was charged with transporting stolen goods and granted bail.
She is also accused of selling the remains to buyers in multiple states – including to Pauley.
In October 2020 Maclean allegedly sold two dissected faces and skin to Pauley for $600, who was hired to tan the skin and make it into leather before shipping it back to MacLean.
MacLean is then said to have shipped human skin to Pauley in June or July 2021 so he could tan the leather.
It is also claimed she contacted Lodge to get more human skin to Pauley, with the morgue manager searching for the organ for her.
Cedric Lodge (pictured), 55, is accused of taking heads, skin, bones and brains from cadavers donated to Harvard’s Medical School – which he had access to as morgue manager
Lodge is said to have stolen remains from cadavers donated to Harvard Medical School for scientific research and education
Pauley, 41, received the skin as payment for tanning the other skin, with MacLean messaging him to check it arrived because she ‘wanted to make sure it got’ to him and she didn’t ‘expect agents at the door’, the indictment read.
In total he paid her $8,800 in October 2021 for the stolen human remains. Overall Pauley paid $59,824 for the body parts from various sources, the documents state.
Pauley is accused of reselling the remains he received to others, including tattoo artist Matthew Lampi.
Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, and Pauley allegedly bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments.
If convicted of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, the seven defendants face as long as 15 years in prison, according to the US Attorney’s office in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Pauley agreed in May to admit guilt to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property and a second count of conspiracy.
The agreement doesn’t specify what sentence federal prosecutors will recommend.
Harvard is now working with federal authorities to determine which donors may have been affected and have set up a hotline for donors’ families to access information and support.
The school insist that no other employees at the school are facing charges or are suspected of any wrongdoing.
In a statement George Q. Daley, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard described Lodge’s behavior as ‘an abhorrent betrayal’ and ‘morally reprehensible.’
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