Inside the Harvard Morgue scandal where manager spent decades 'selling body parts on sick black market' while driving car with 'GRIM-R' plate - as families now scour evidence to see if they can spot their loved ones' SKULLS

Buckets of human remains. Desecrated corpses. A nationwide network linked to an Ivy League institution. These are all the components of a scheme that saw some 400 body parts stolen from Harvard Medical School's morgue, prosecutors say.

The case remains ongoing, and a seasoned staffer who ran the facility is said to be responsible. Enter 56-year-old Cedric Lodge - the unassuming man who manned the halls of windowless, subterranean space for some 27 years. 

During that span, he allegedly stole brains, skin, and bones from right under university brass's noses and shipped them by mail to buyers from his New Hampshire home. He is also accused to letting 'customers' wander around the morgue to pick out what they wanted. 

But the ghoulish black market came crashing down this past summer when cops received a tip that led them straight to one of the buyers' basements.

That call led to to Lodge's firing, seven arrests, and a slew of federal charges - with the scandal also providing a rare glimpse into the grisly underground world of organ trade. 

As Harvard works to identify the bodies impacted, hundreds of families are now desperately seeking answers, as the fate of their loved ones remains up in the air.

Lodge started work as Harvard Med's morgue manager back in 1995, assuming the post when he was 27 years old.

For years, he would run the school's Anatomical Gift Program, during which time thousands of Good Samaritans donated their bodies to the school for research purposes.

Lodge, meanwhile, lived 60 miles away with his wife in suburban New Hampshire, commuting an hour each day - eventually in a car sporting the license plate 'GRIM-R.'

At the school, he was tasked with preparing for and accepting donors' bodies, embalming them and overseeing their storage.

When they were finished being used for research, the bodies would then be prepared by Lodge to be transported to a crematory - a crucial step prosecutors said Lodge eventually lost sight of.

All the while, thousands of the most talented young medical minds in the country were being molded in the halls above. Four different deans - all working next-door - came and went, and Lodge still went unnoticed.

By 2013, feds said he was stealing supplies like body bags, citing a post to the online forum DeviantArt from the morgue man - who, by 2018, had allegedly upgraded to the corpses. 

'I have been looking for customers interested in purchasing some heavy body bags and other miscellaneous medical toys,' Lodge wrote in a post resurfaced by prosecutors, looking for 'a little cash to plan a vacation.'

Prosecutors say he went on to invite interested parties into the hallowed university's off-limits morgue - before pawning off parts of donated cadavers like brains, skulls, and skin to the highest bidder.

This reportedly continued for at least five years - in a practice that harked back to the days when professors relied on body snatchers to rob graves in the 18th and 19th centuries.

And he wasn't alone. His wife, Denise, oversaw electronic payments for the stolen human remains through PayPal.

A supporting cast of buyers were also involved - funneling tens of thousands in the form of dozens of payments to the account.

Many of these payments sported macabre descriptions - such as 'head number 7' or in one case, 'braiiiiiins.'

It was one of these buyers who ended up inadvertently exposing the scandal. 

That person was 41-year-old Pennsylvanian Jeremy Pauley, whose estranged wife called cops in June of 2022 to tell them something was amiss at his Enola home, which was located right across from a graveyard.

A dispatcher connected her to the East Pennsboro Township Police Department, who sent Sergeant Adam Shope to investigate.

One of the most senior officers on call in the sleepy town, he went on to blow the case wide open.

First, though, he came face-to-face with Pauley - who had black, scale-like tattoos covering half of his face and metal spikes protruding out of the top of his head. 

One of his eyes was dyed black, Shope later told the Boston Globe - and in the homeowner's mouth, was a set of sharpened, shark-like teeth. 

The intimidating visage at first unsettled the investigator, whose superiors had told him during a brief that the woman had claimed Pauley was hoarding illegally obtained human remains.

But Pauley's demeanor came in stark opposition to his appearance, Shope told the outlet - remembering Pauley as not only cooperative, but 'nice as pie.'

Pauley happily let him inside when the officer explained what he was investigating - and was immediately graced with a glimpse at the horrors the house had in store.

What awaited him inside was far from typical décor - with jars holding infant remains on full display, along with more than 50 human ribs and three full skeletons.

A placid Pauley proceeded to explain - calmly telling the officer how he was preservation specialist, specifically 'of retired medical specimens' and historic human remains.

A professional with a website and years of experience, he answered questions about the collection without any pushback - and left Shope in awe due to the extent of his cooperation.

He explained how his home doubled as his Memento Mori Museum, 'a place where lost histories are regained and respectfully displayed.'

Pauley further revealed himself to be one of the most active dealers in a largely unknown - and unregulated - body part marketplace, where collectors preserve and shill 'oddities' such as human remains.

Explaining his prominence in the field and its scientific aspects, he successfully swayed Shope into believing his antics were above board.

'During the course of the interview,' Shope wrote in his report of the on June 20, 2022 visit, 'it was determined that these items were lawfully purchased from medical facilities and museums.'

But another call from the same woman the next month reignited suspicions.

This time, the woman urged officers to visit her estranged spouse's basement - cryptically telling them to look inside the multiple Home Depot buckets he had stored there.

This time, the claim was enough for Shope to seek a search warrant, one he successfully obtained before paying a visit to the previously unseen basement, which Pauley neglected to include in his tour.

Moreover, for this visit, Pauley wasn't present - but his wife was, and led the sergeant and other officers into the space to a scene straight out a snuff film.

There, officers recalled in an ensuing criminal complaint, a plastic bag filled with human eyeballs sat the floor, as an expanse of human skin laid draped over the back of a chair. 

Inside the three buckets Pauley's wife has warned about, laid a bevy of floating body parts - including kidneys, lungs, a heart, a spleen, and a trachea. 

There were also two brains, as well as a skull with hair still attached, and a child-sized jawbone with teeth still in place.

A portrait of Jesus propped against a cardboard box loomed over the startling scene, while shipping labels on that box and elsewhere provided officers with the first hint of the extent of the illegal activity that had been occurring.

A federal investigation ensued, during which officials would eventually hone in on Lodge and several other buyers.

One was Pauley, who was arrested and released on bail in 2022 after police found the five-gallon buckets. He had paid more than $50,000 to two others who allegedly obtained parts from Lodge, Candace Chapman Scott and Joshua Taylor. 

Pauley pleaded guilty one state charge of abusing a corpse and was sentenced to to two years probation earlier this month. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges of interstate transporting of stolen property and a second count of conspiracy - for which he is yet to be sentenced. 

Despite this he still has a professional preservation site up and running, and has a large Facebook following of over 6,000 members. 

Pauley's girlfriend Sophie Mae Vee - who describes herself as a human blood artist -claims he has a legitimate, legal, business preserving human parts for his museum.  

At some point during feds' investigation, another buyer emerged - Katrina Maclean - who allegedly sold and shipped the stolen body parts to people in other states, Pauley included. 

She also operated a small store out Salem, Massachusetts, called Kat's Creepy Creations, out of a former leather mill.

Active in her city's so-called 'oddities' scene since 2018, she sold porcelain dolls she painted and dressed in nightmarish ways on Facebook and Instagram - creations she said should 'shock the mind & shake the soul.' 

In October 2020, feds found she sold two dissected faces and skin to Pauley for $600. 

MacLean also allegedly shipped human skin to Pauley in the summer of 2021 so he could tan the leather, after which she is also said to have contacted Lodge to obtain more human skin for Pauley.

Pauley, in turn, received the skin as payment for the tanning, with MacLean afterwards messaging him to check it arrived, the indictment read. The preservationist then allegedly paid her $8,800 in October 2021 for the remains.

Feds say that Pauley also exchanged body parts with Scott, a morgue worker from Arkansas.

Scott is also charged with stealing remains from her employer, a Little Rock, Arkansas mortuary and crematorium. She pleaded not guilty. 

The stolen parts, feds claim, came from cadavers she was supposed to cremate - as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies.

Scott allegedly sold the stolen remains to Pauley before shipping them out, after they connected on Facebook.

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?'

Maclean, Scott, and Taylor, who are each charged with interstate transport of stolen goods and conspiracy to defraud the US, due to their involvement in Lodge's alleged misdeeds have pleaded not guilty. 

Scott also faces additional charges of mail and wire fraud, after feds raided the home of another suspect in Kentucky, reclusive 40-year-old James Nott. 

Nott, 39, had dozens of human skulls which were being used as 'decoration' as well as hip bones and spinal cords which were being used as furniture at his home in Louisville, according to his criminal complaint - with one of the skulls had a scarf tied around its neck and another on the bed where Nott slept.

Authorities have accused him of purchasing the remains from Pauley. He has pleaded not guilty. 

Tattoo artist Matthew Lampi was also named in the case as another buyer.

Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, and Pauley bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments, feds proved - after Lampi also pleaded guilty this past month.

A resurfaced magazine article from 2008 hinted at at the Minnesota's man's interest in collecting skulls, with the tattoo artist describing a 'fascination with the human form and what lies under the skin' and the 'twisted and macabre [inspiration] from the dark recesses of his mind.'

After Lodge's arrest brought his tenure with Harvard to an abrupt end, he continues to maintain his innocence. But his wife, Denise Lodge, pleaded guilty to her part in the underground ring. 

Harvard is now working with feds to determine which donors may have been impacted by the ring, and has set up a hotline for families to access information and support.

At the time, the deans of the school penned an emotional public letter titled 'An abhorrent betrayal,' which outlined the sprawling case and apologized for the pain Lodge allegedly inflicted on the Harvard community.

'We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others,' George Q. Daley, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard wrote, describing Lodge's alleged behavior as  'morally reprehensible.'

'The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research,' he added.

'We are so very sorry for the pain this news will cause for our anatomical donors' families and loved ones, and HMS pledges to engage with them during this deeply distressing time.'

This past month, a Massachusetts judge dismissed a case brought by families whose loved ones' body parts had been confirmed stolen, after the Suffolk country jurist said the lawsuits from the families failed to show Harvard was responsible for the conduct of its morgue manager, who has yet to be found guilty.

'We are profoundly disappointed with this decision, but it is not the final word on our efforts to prevent Harvard from shirking its responsibility,' an attorney for the nearly 50 relatives said, announcing their intent to appeal.

She also criticized the judge for too readily buying the Ivy League institution's argument that it acted in good faith, as it maintains that no other employees are facing charges or are suspected of any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, people like Paula Peltonovich and Jack Porter have been told their loved one remains have most likely been stolen from the Harvard Medical School morgue and sold illegally.  

'My mom just passed away in March and she's down there, and we want her back,' Peltonovich told WMUR9 in June

Porter, who works at Harvard, said his wife was meant to have been cremated in the medical school morgue in 2017 after dying from colon cancer but now fears someone could be handling her body 'in some basement'.

'What bothers me is that there's somebody in some basement somewhere in this country or elsewhere fondling my wife's body parts,' Porter told the Boston Herald. 'It could be her brain, her skin, her bones. This is disgusting and this is why there should be a severe punishment,' he added. 

Porter told the Herald he remembered receiving what he was told were his wife's cremated remains in 2019 but is now appalled to think somebody has them in their possession. 

Stephanie Harzewski's father Vincent also donated his body to the institution after his death in 2017, spurring her to join the others in the now-in-limbo class action.

She wrote an op-ed earlier this month recalling how she looked through images of skulls seen from the Nott bust to see if she could spot one that looked familiar, writing at one point, 'I can rule out those with teeth... My father had dentures.'