A woman who gave her aunt’s body to Harvard Medical School said she felt “sick” after learning that the university’s esteemed mortuary manager is accused of selling hundreds of corpses for profit.
Sarah Hill said her beloved Aunt Christine Eppich had always intended to donate her body to the university’s famous Anatomical Gifts program.
Following her death from pancreatic cancer in March 2021, Hill said her relatives assumed the remains were in “the best possible hands,” but now realize she may have met a troubling fate.
Cedric Lodge, the school’s morgue manager, and several others were charged Wednesday over an alleged scheme to sell body parts from cadavers on the black market.
“You know that you donate your loved one to a program like Harvard and you think that everything will be done right and people would never benefit from something like that,” she told Boston25.
Christine Eppich (pictured) planned years before her death to donate her body to Harvard Medical School for research and education
Eppich’s niece Sarah Hill (pictured) said she felt “sick” when she learned her aunt’s remains may have been sold or tampered with in a disturbing human trafficking ring
Hill expressed horror at the thought of her aunt’s remains being sold on the black market, after Eppich only donated her body with good intentions.
“She was my favorite aunt. She worked with children and adults with special needs and everyone loved Christine,” she added.
While the family recovered Eppich’s remains last fall, their time in storage has left her relatives with unanswered questions about what may have gone on behind closed doors.
“Christine wanted other people to benefit from her passing so she could be studied,” Hill continued. “So that the doctors of the future or tomorrow could study her body and find a cure not only for pancreatic cancer, but for another, you know, disease.
“And we as family members gave her body to Harvard, thinking she was in the best hands possible.”
She said that after learning of the twisted plan, she called the Harvard program’s 24-hour hotline, who sadly told her that Eppich’s name was on the “possibly affected list.”
Prosecutors have filed a laundry list of charges against the manager of the Harvard morgue after he allegedly traded body parts from the morgue for profit.
He was arrested Wednesday along with several others, including his wife Denise Lodge, 63, and Katrina Maclean, 44, who runs the ominous small business Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts.
The group was allegedly involved in a depraved black market system that stole and sold body parts, including heads, brains, skin and other body parts.
Hill (right) said Eppich (left) decided to donate her remains to science so “other people can benefit from her passing”
Cedric Lodge (pictured) allegedly stole the remains of cadavers donated to the prestigious university for scientific research and teaching.
Twisted human remains trafficking system reportedly backed by Harvard Medical School (pictured)
The caretaker of the morgue is accused of stealing cadaver remains donated to the prestigious university for scientific research and education.
According to the federal indictment, Lodge took the dissected body parts to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise, resold them as part of a national network of traffickers.
Some of the remains reportedly even shipped through the United States Postal Service and paid for on platforms including PayPal.
Lodge had been at Harvard since 1995 until the Medical School terminated his employment on May 6 of this year.
“Sometimes he used his access to the morgue to let Katrina MacLean, Joshua Taylor, and others into the morgue and choose what was left for sale,” the indictment adds.
Several buyers have also been named in the indictment, including Jeremy Pauley (pictured)
Alleged buyer Katrina MacLean, of Salem, Massachusetts, who owned and operated a business called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts
Maclean is also accused of reselling the remains he obtained to other buyers in multiple states, including to Jeremy Pauley
Pauley, 40, had previously been arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and trading the proceeds of illegal activity
His alleged conspirator Maclean is also accused of selling the remains to other buyers in multiple states, including Jeremy Pauley of Enola and Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
Pauley, 40, had previously been arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and trading the proceeds of illegal activity last summer.
In October 2020, Maclean sold two dissected faces and skin to Pauley for $600, who was hired to tan the skin and turn it into leather before shipping it back to Maclean.
The suit states that Pauley made $8,800 to MacLean and 25 payments totaling $40,049.04 to Taylor via PayPal.
Pauley also purchased body parts stolen from a crematorium in Little Rock, Arkansas, by Candace Chapman Scott, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
“Some crimes defy comprehension,” US attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a statement about the charges.
‘The theft and trade in human remains touches the essence of what makes us human.
“It is particularly egregious that so many victims here have volunteered for their remains to be used to train medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing.
“It is appalling that they and their families are being taken advantage of in the name of profit. With these charges we are trying to ensure some degree of justice for all these victims.’