By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Close to a dozen new family members have joined the lawsuit against Harvard University after learning that the corpses of their relatives were desecrated as part of a ghoulish, underground market in human remains.
The case, which started with a handful of plaintiffs, is growing into a major class-action lawsuit that could involve many more.
Several people were indicted in June for allegedly taking part in the body snatching ring, including married Goffstown couple Cedric Lodge, 55, and Denise Lodge, 63. Cedric Lodge was the manager at the Harvard Medical School mortuary where the cadavers of people who had donated their bodies to science after death were stored.
“These were not mere ‘cadavers;’ they were beloved fathers, mothers and husbands who lived lives of generosity, dedicated to education and learning. They all had one goal with this selfless donation: to help the greater good. We are committed to holding all those responsible for this unconscionable offense accountable, and to seek justice so that no other family or individual will have to experience this again,” said Morgan & Morgan attorneys John Morgan and Kathryn Barnett in a statement released Wednesday.
There are now 19 family members suing Harvard, with demands that the school be held financially responsible for recovering and identifying all remains that were allegedly sold or distributed illegally, and then providing those remains with a respectful disposition in accordance with the wishes of their families.
So far, the lawsuit involves the family members of eight body donors; Glenn Wilder, Sr., Marshall Jolotta, Joseph Gagne, Doreen Gordon, Donna Pratt, Patricia Sergio, Billie Flanagan and Mickey Maxwell Cohen. However, there could be hundreds of cadavers desecrated as part of the scheme that goes back at least five years, according to the lawsuit.
Harvard Medical School accepts donations of human remains for teaching purposes, and under the donation agreement, the remains are typically cremated or buried following their service. Cedric Lodge allegedly stole parts from morgue for Pennsylvania man Joshua Taylor, 46, and Salem, Massachusetts artist Katrina Maclean, 44.
Cedric Lodge is also accused of letting others into the morgue to pick out body parts from the cadavers, according to court records. Cedric and Denise Lodge also allegedly brought some of the parts to their home and kept them for their buyers, according to court records.
The lawsuit faults the school for allowing the Lodges and the others to turn the morgue into a grisly market while doing nothing for the families in the wake of the scandal.
“Harvard abandoned the remains in a facility that was a place of freakish desecration, where, according to the indictments, criminals were allowed to roam and pick over loved ones’ remains for bits like trinkets at a flea market,” the lawsuit states.
The Lodges allegedly worked with Pennsylvania man Joshua Taylor and Salem, Massachusetts artist Katrina Maclean and others to steal body parts and sell them online.
Taylor and Maclean trafficked the parts to buyers across the country using Facebook and other social media apps, the charges state. Maclean also ran a store in Peabody, Kat’s Creepy Creations, which she used to traffic in the stolen parts, according to the indictments.
Others in the cadaver-stealing circle include Pennsylvania man Jeremy Pauley, 41, an employee of a cremation business, Candace Chapman Scott, 36, an Arkansas mortuary employee who was allegedly able to steal donated bodies from the University of Arkansas Medical School, and Matthew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, a frequent buyer and seller of body parts, according to court records.
The Lodges have pleaded not guilty in the case.