A Massachusetts woman who once posed for a selfie with an eerie doll has been sentenced to prison for trafficking human remains stolen from the Harvard Medical School morgue.
Katrina Maclean, 47, received a 24-month prison term on Tuesday after acknowledging her part in a disturbing body-parts trafficking operation led by former Harvard morgue manager Cedric Lodge, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Maclean pleaded guilty in December to interstate transport of stolen goods, court records obtained by Our News Outlet show.
The mother of two admitted to investigators that she kept and sold human remains through her business, Kat’s Creepy Creations, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Authorities said Maclean acquired the remains from Lodge, who between 2018 and 2022 stole organs and other body parts from cadavers donated to Harvard for medical research before they were due to be cremated.
Prosecutors said Lodge moved the remains from the Boston medical school to his home in New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold them to buyers including Maclean.
The indictment also alleged that Lodge permitted Maclean and other customers to enter the Harvard Medical School morgue, inspect cadavers and choose which remains they wanted to buy.
Lodge was sentenced last year to eight years in prison for stealing and selling human body parts that prosecutors said were treated “as if they were baubles.”
Katrina Maclean poses with an eerie doll. Maclean, 47, was the owner of Kat’s Creepy Creations, a shop in Peabody, Massachusetts that specialized in dolls, oddities and bone art
Maclean was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Tuesday after admitting her role in a ghoulish scheme that involved trafficking human remains from Harvard Medical School
Maclean agreed to purchase two dissected faces from Lodge for $600 in October 2020, the indictment said.
The pair made sale arrangements on the phone and via social media, then met at the Harvard Medical School morgue to conduct the transaction, prosecutors said.
In July 2021, Maclean shipped human skin from Massachusetts to a man in Pennsylvania whom she wanted to ‘tan the skin to create leather,’ the indictment said.
She paid the man with more human skin instead of money, according to court documents.
Kat’s Creepy Creations, which was known to sell dolls, oddities and bone art, was raided by the FBI in March 2023, months before she and the other defendants were charged in the case.
Seven others, including the Lodges, have been imprisoned after previously entering guilty pleas in connection to the human remains scheme.
Maclean’s attorney Edward Rymsza, in a statement to Boston.com Wednesday, described her sentence as ‘unreasonably excessive.’
‘An appeal was filed minutes after the judgment was entered,’ he added.
Maclean pleaded guilty to a charge of interstate transport of stolen goods last December
Prosecutors say Maclean purchased the remains from former morgue manager Cedric Lodge
Lodge his wife, Denise Lodge, (pictured) were sentenced to 96 months and 12 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme
Harvard Medical School this week agreed to pay $53 million to settle class action lawsuits by relatives of body donors whose remains were trafficked in the scheme.
The lawsuits were brought by 47 relatives of people whose remains were potentially mishandled and sold. The remains were donated for research and education.
Harvard has said it cannot determine precisely which donors’ remains Lodge stole.
After he was charged in 2023, the school said it reviewed information from federal investigators along with records showing when donors’ remains were sent for cremation and when Lodge was on campus to determine which donors may have been affected.
The settlement covers relatives or designees of people who donated their remains to Harvard Medical School between January 1, 2018, and March 31, 2023.
Harvard Medical School Deans George Q Daley and Bernard S Chang announced the development in a letter to the community on Tuesday, calling the actions of Lodge ‘despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community.’
In their letter, Daley and Chang said Lodge’s actions ‘do not reflect the reverence we hold for the altruistic individuals who selflessly donate their bodies’ to the school’s Anatomical Gift Program.
‘We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted,’ they said.
Harvard Medical School (file photo) this week agreed to pay $53 million to settle class action lawsuits by relatives of body donors whose remains were trafficked in the scheme
In addition to the payments, Harvard Medical School agreed to provide families with a statement condemning Lodge’s actions and summarizing improvements made to the Anatomical Gift Program.
The school also plans to establish an annual financial aid scholarship for medical students beginning in the 2027-28 academic year to honor anatomical donors.
Harvard said it has enacted recommendations from a panel of outside experts appointed in 2023 to review the program after Lodge was charged.
Pending court approval, Harvard said that two class action settlement funds totaling $53 million will be established to resolve the lawsuits.
The Daily Mail has approached Harvard Medical School and attorneys for Maclean and the Lodges for comment.
