Berks man pleads guilty in stolen human remains case
A Wernersville man has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he bought and sold human remains that had been stolen from Harvard Medical School.
Joshua Taylor, 46, pleaded guilty Thursday before Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann, to interstate transport of stolen human remains, according to a release from Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
According to the release:
Taylor admitted that he bought human remains that he knew had been stolen from Harvard Medical School and transported them from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania from 2018 through 2022.
Taylor also sold stolen human remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley of Susquehanna County, who pleaded guilty in September 2023 to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property.
The indictment alleged that from 2018 through 2022, Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School in Boston, stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations.
Lodge is accused of at times transporting stolen remains from Boston to his residence in Goffstown, N.H., where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains to Taylor and others, making arrangements via cellphone and social media websites.
On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania.
Officials said these other defendants also have pleaded guilty: Denise Lodge; Andrew Ensanian of Montgomery, Lycoming County; Matthew Lampi of East Bethel, Minn.; and Angelo Pereyra of Wichita, Kan.
Lampi was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Denise Lodge and Ensanian are awaiting sentencing.
Also, Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and soldthem to Pauley in Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court in Arkansas and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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