Members of an alleged conspiracy involving human body parts stolen from Harvard Medical School’s morgue and an Arkansas crematorium connected through a private Facebook group for buying and selling “oddities,” according to court filings.
(Bloomberg) — Members of an alleged conspiracy involving human body parts stolen from Harvard Medical School’s morgue and an Arkansas crematorium connected through a private Facebook group for buying and selling “oddities,” according to court filings.
“Just out of curiosity, would you know anyone in the market for a fully in tact embalmed brain?” a Little Rock, Arkansas, funeral home contractor named Candace Chapman Scott asked in an October 2021 Facebook Messenger note to accused dealer Jeremy Pauley in Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors say.
Seven people in five states, including Cedric Lodge, 55, who was the longtime manager of Harvard’s morgue, were criminally charged in connection with a macabre underground network described as buying and selling stolen brains, hearts, skin and fetal remains.
If convicted of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, the defendants face as long as 15 years in prison, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the US Attorney’s office in Scranton, Pennsylvania. So far, only Pauley has agreed to plead guilty, and attorneys for the others are not commenting.
There are several Facebook groups devoted to buying, selling and trading “oddities,” which run the gamut from antiques and toys to witchcraft supplies. Charging documents say Scott and Pauley were members of the same group but don’t identify it.
‘People Bits’
One of the largest private Facebook groups has more than 53,000 members worldwide. “If you’re selling people bits please use the words osteological specimen,” a landing page for the group advises. “If you’re posting a wet specimen, use the word moist or damp. Anything otherwise will be removed.”
Read More: Harvard Medical Morgue Chief Charged With Selling Body Parts
Lodge, who was fired in May, is accused of letting a doll maker from Salem, Massachusetts, named Katrina MacLean and Joshua Taylor of Pennsylvania, an alleged trafficker, into the Harvard morgue. The morgue manager and his wife, Denise, allegedly sold remains to both MacLean and Taylor. Harvard Medical deans have called the alleged crimes “an abhorrent betrayal.”
MacLean, 44, who runs “Kat’s Creepy Creations,” advertised items that “shock the mind & shake the soul” on an Instagram profile that was active on Wednesday and offline as of Thursday. At festivals in Salem, famous for New England’s 1692 witch trials, MacLean sells dolls she transforms from cherubic figures into horror movie-style characters with fangs and dripping blood. Her social media contains videos of the dolls’ transformations.
Human Exploitation
Meta Platforms Inc., parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, isn’t accused of wrongdoing in connection with the alleged body part sales. The company’s posted policy against human exploitation bans “non-regenerative organ trafficking.”
Taylor, 46, appears to be a longtime customer of the Lodges. He made 39 payments to Denise Lodge’s PayPal totaling more than $37,000 from September 2018 to July 2021, prosecutors say.
One of his payments included a memo that read, “braiiiiiins.” Another payment, for $1,000, was billed as “head number 7.”
MacLean and Taylor are each accused of shipping human remains to Pauley, who allegedly was asked by MacLean to turn human skin into leather, according to an indictment.
Tip to Police
Pauley, 41, agreed in May to admit guilt to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property and a second count of conspiracy, according to a plea deal disclosed in a court filing this week in Scranton. The agreement doesn’t specify what sentence federal prosecutors will recommend.
Last year, an anonymous tip about a man selling human body parts on Facebook led police to his home.
“Hello so what did the police say?” Matthew Lampi of Minnesota messaged Pauley through WhatsApp in June 2022, according to a court filing.
“Jeremy Pauley responded that he had been asked about human remains, but that ‘in the end the only thing that mattered was nothing was proven grave robbed, or stolen out of a morgue,’” prosecutors said.
Pauley capped his message to Lampi with a smiley face emoji. Lampi, 52, was arrested and released in Minnesota after being indicted in Pennsylvania.
Arkansas Crematorium
Charges against the two portray a brisk business with Pauley marking up the price of remains he sold Lampi after buying them from Scott in Arkansas. Those remains had been taken to a crematorium following use for education and study through the University of Arkansas’ Anatomical Donor Program.
Leslie W. Taylor, the university’s vice chancellor for communications, said the school is the victim of an “unimaginable, appalling crime.”
“We are saddened that this happened with the remains of people who are true heroes,” she said.
The university has since hired a different crematorium.
Scott, 36, allegedly sold human lungs from a smoker to Pauley for $850 as part of a package deal with other organs. He then sold the lungs to Lampi for $1,900, according to an indictment.
She has been held without bail since April and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to court records.
–With assistance from Alex Barinka.
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