Harvard morgue ex-manager’s wife pleads guilty to selling stolen body parts
Denise Lodge is in court over the online sale of hands, spines, brains and faces from bodies donated for research.
The wife of a former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has pleaded guilty to shipping stolen human body parts — including hands, feet, heads and spines — to a network of buyers across the US.
Prosecutors had accused Denise Lodge of negotiating online sales of numerous items including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads.
The dissected cadavers, which had originally been donated to the school for research, were taken between 2018 and early 2023 without the school’s knowledge or permission.
One of the buyers, who owned a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations, allegedly paid US$600 ($925) for two desiccated faces.
