Ex-Harvard morgue manager charged with selling stolen body parts to plead guilty

BOSTON - A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager accused of stealing and selling organs and other parts of cadavers donated to the school for medical research and education has agreed to plead guilty. Cedric Lodge, who managed Harvard's morgue for more than two decades before his 2023 arrest, has agreed to plead guilty to transporting stolen goods across state lines, according to a plea agreement, opens new tab filed on Wednesday in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

He opted to plead guilty rather than proceed to trial as scheduled on May 5 alongside a woman who prosecutors said bought body parts from Lodge and his wife, who had pleaded guilty last year. ---More...

????????HARVARD MORGUE BOSS SOLD BRAINS, SKIN & FACES... UMM?! WHAT?

Cedric Lodge had one job: manage the morgue at Harvard Medical School and make sure donated bodies were used for science.

Instead? He turned the place into Facebook Marketplace for body parts.

From 2018 to 2023,… pic.twitter.com/O6JnHw5Ej1

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal)April 20, 2025

HARVARD MORGUE BOSS SOLD BRAINS, SKIN & FACES... UMM?! WHAT?

Cedric Lodge had one job: manage the morgue at Harvard Medical School and make sure donated bodies were used for science.

Instead? He turned the place into Facebook Marketplace for body parts.

From 2018 to 2023, Lodge and his wife allegedly sold off brains, bones, and even dissected faces like they were running a haunted Etsy shop.

One buyer literally Venmo’d “braiiiiiins” as a payment note.

Customers sometimes came into the morgue to “pick their parts.”

One woman reportedly bought 2 FACES for $600 - which feels like a discount you only get in a horror movie.

Lodge is now pleading guilty.

He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Harvard is furious, families are devastated, and the rest of us are just sitting here wondering...

Who wakes up and thinks, ‘How can I best photo this brain for Ebay?"