Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to settle lawsuits filed by families over the mishandling and theft of donated bodies by Cedric Lodge, the former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School (HMS) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Between 2018 and 2021, Lodge stole and sold body parts including heads, faces, brains, skin, hands, and other organs from cadavers donated for medical research. He transported the remains from Harvard’s morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and sold them to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Lodge pleaded guilty to the crimes and was sentenced in December 2025 to eight years in federal prison. His wife, Denise Lodge, was sentenced to about one year and a day for her involvement [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7]. Several co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty and received prison sentences ranging from months to years [1, 4, 5, 6].
An estimated 350 to 400 donated cadavers may have been affected by the thefts, according to court filings [4]. Families filed civil lawsuits against Harvard in 2023 alleging negligence and failure to safeguard donated bodies. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived these lawsuits in October 2025 after an earlier dismissal [1, 2, 3, 4, 6].
In a letter from HMS deans George Daley and Bernard Chang, Harvard condemned Lodge’s conduct as "despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community." They said, "Lodge’s criminal acts were morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the standards that Harvard University and HMS expect for the treatment of anatomical donors and their loved ones" [1, 2, 5, 7].
The $53 million settlement, preliminarily approved by a Massachusetts state court judge on August 18, 2026, will fund two class action settlement funds for affected families once final court approval is granted [2, 3, 5, 7]. The final hearing for approval is set for December 9, 2026 [7].
Harvard Medical School also announced it will establish an annual financial aid scholarship beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year to honor anatomical donors [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7].
