Harvard morgue case

WBUR's ongoing coverage of a Harvard Medical School's morgue manager accused of stealing and selling human body parts, in what prosecutors say exposed a nationwide network of trading in human remains.

Harvard Medical School in Boston's Longwood neighborhood. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Body donors pull bequests to Harvard following morgue scandal

Data provided by the school show that 65 people rescinded their registration in the last year, compared to an average of nine in the four years prior.

Local Coverage

Jul 22, 2024

Medical students stand around an operation in a lecture theater in the United Kingdom around 1898. (SSPL/Getty Images)

The dark history of medical education

Training in anatomy has long separated doctors from other healers. But voluntary body donation was largely unheard of until about 60 years ago.

Local Coverage

Jun 13, 2024

After morgue thefts, Harvard avoids accountability

A year ago, Harvard Medical School announced its longtime morgue manager had been arrested for harvesting skin, organs and other parts from deceased donors who'd pledged their bodies to science....

Local Coverage

Jun 13, 2024

Jeremy Pauley at the Cumberland County courthouse in Pennsylvania on March 5, 2024. (Dan Gleiter/Penn Live)

Harvard, the human remains trade, and collectors who fuel the market

There is no federal law against buying or selling human remains and only a patchwork of state laws that go largely unenforced. That’s allowed the trade in so-called “medical specimens”...

Local Coverage

Jun 13, 2024

5 things to know before donating your body to science

After delving deeply into the scandal over bodies that authorities say were stolen from the morgue at Harvard University's medical school, WBUR reporter Ally Jarmanning explains how institutions use human...

Health

May 14, 2024

Last Seen Season Four: Postmortem, The Stolen Bodies of Harvard

Introducing 'Postmortem': The stolen bodies of Harvard

Hundreds of people donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School, hoping to advance science and train the next generation of doctors. Meanwhile, prosecutors say the school's morgue manager treated it...

Last Seen

02:54Apr 16, 2024

Denise Lodge covered her face with a printout of the indictment against her as she left court in Concord, New Hampshire, after her arrest in June. (Steven Porter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Wife of ex-Harvard morgue manager agrees to plead guilty to transporting stolen human remains

Cedric and Denise Lodge were accused of running a nationwide body parts business, supplied by donor remains from Harvard Medical School.

Local Coverage

Feb 23, 2024

Pine Hill Cemetery, in Tewksbury, Mass., where many individuals who donate their bodies to university medical morgues are buried. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Judge dismisses families' claims against Harvard in stolen bodies cases

Judge Kenneth Salinger wrote that, under the provision, as long as the defendants "acted in good faith" to try to ensure human remains "were treated with respect and properly disposed...

Local Coverage

Feb 12, 2024

Report on Harvard's morgue finds lack of oversight and no policy on handling of human bodies

Outside experts appointed to review Harvard Medical School's morgue operations in the wake of body parts being stolen and sold found the school lacked formal policies and had little oversight...

Local Coverage

Dec 7, 2023

Harvard Medical School in 2022 in Boston. (Charles Krupa/AP)Harvard Medical School in 2022 in Boston. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Harvard asks judge to dismiss family lawsuits over alleged morgue thefts

Lawyers for Harvard claim the school is immune from liability under the state’s anatomical gift act, which protects any institution acting in “good faith.”

Local Coverage

Dec 6, 2023

Harvard report on morgue thefts is delayed, frustrating affected families

Harvard Medical School appears to have temporarily halted donations to the school’s anatomical gift program in the aftermath of the scandal.

Local Coverage

Nov 13, 2023

Report by panel reviewing Harvard Medical School's body donor program delayed

Harvard Medical School says that a review of its body donation program, now mired in an interstate body parts theft scandal, won’t be completed until October. It was originally set...

Local Coverage

Sep 4, 2023

A booking photo of James Nott. Federal investigators say he is a part of an alleged nationwide body parts selling scheme. (Courtesy Oldham County Detention Center)

Kentucky man found with 40 skulls in home, allegedly linked to Harvard morgue thefts

FBI agents searched the home of James Nott on Tuesday and found 40 human skulls, spinal cords, femurs, hip bones and a Harvard Medical School bag, according to court records.

Local Coverage

Jul 13, 2023

A look at the legal and ethical implications of the Harvard Medical School morgue case

Families of donors seek answers from the Harvard Medical School.

Radio Boston

13:21Jun 22, 2023

Gwen Szent-Gyorgyi, right, with her daughter, Lara (Courtesy Lara Szent-Gyorgyi)

Families of donors to Harvard Medical School are angry, grieving over alleged body thefts

Some families are still waiting to hear whether their loved ones' bodies were among those allegedly stolen and sold by the former Harvard morgue manager.

Local Coverage

03:27Jun 16, 2023

With no state oversight, Mass. medical school morgues are vulnerable to illicit market for bodies

Harvard Medical School's longtime morgue manager stands accused of stealing and selling body parts for tens of thousands of dollars.

Local Coverage

Jun 15, 2023

Harvard Medical School morgue manager accused of stealing, selling human body parts as part of 'nationwide network'

The indictment alleges that starting in 2018, Cedric Lodge began taking body parts that had been donated for medical research and bringing them to his home in Goffstown, N.H. He...

Local Coverage

03:53Jun 14, 2023