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A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has been accused of stealing and selling body parts as part of a nationwide scheme extending from 2018 through 2022, as per prosecutors on Wednesday.

Cedric Lodge, 55, has been charged with trafficking in stolen human parts, the US attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a statement.

"Some crimes defy understanding," said the attorney, Gerard Karam.

"It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing," he added.

Lodge has been accused of participating in a "nationwide network" of bought and sold human remains together with his wife Denise Lodge, 63, and five other alleged co-conspirators.

Prosecutors detailed that Cedric Lodge "stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations" from 2018 through 2022.

Organ Harvesting: 6 Charged for Stealing and Selling Body Parts from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas Morgue

Six people have been charged for selling and stealing body parts from Harvard medical school and an Arkansas morgue. pic.twitter.com/SlRX9ERCGk

— Andy Greensky (@AndyGreensky) June 15, 2023

Additionally, he is charged with taking the remains from the Harvard site in Boston and transporting them to his house in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife allegedly sold the remains to Katrina Maclean and Joshua Taylor, two of the other accused.

At times, Lodge "allowed Maclean and Taylor to enter the morgue... and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase," the attorney's office added.

Prosecutors stated that Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts, and Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania then resold the remains for profit.

"Scott stole parts of cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, many of which had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by an area medical school, as well as the corpses of two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned as cremains to their families," prosecutors said in the statement.

Prosecutors said Scott and Pauley, who is charged with selling several of these to other people, "bought and sold from each other over a long period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payment."

George Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine, and Edward Hundert, dean for medical education, in a Harvard Medical School statement, described the alleged incidents as an "abhorrent betrayal" and "morally reprehensible".

On his account, Scott's lawyer George Morledge said as quoted by The New York Times that "before we start jumping to conclusions about what was going on with Ms. Scott, we need to let this play out in the court system."