A woman from Bradford, Mass., has admitted in federal court that she trafficked stolen human remains across state lines.
On Monday, Dec. 8, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that 46-year-old Katrina Maclean pleaded guilty before Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann to interstate transport of stolen human remains.
According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, Maclean acknowledged that between 2018 and 2022 she purchased human remains she knew had been stolen from Harvard Medical School. She then transported the remains from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said Maclean also resold stolen remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley, who previously pleaded guilty to a felony information.
Authorities allege the remains were originally stolen by Cedric Lodge, the Harvard Medical School morgue manager for the Anatomical Gifts Program in Boston, Mass. Investigators said Lodge took organs and other body parts from cadavers donated for medical research and education between 2018 and 2022, before their scheduled cremations.
Officials said Lodge sometimes brought the stolen remains from Boston to his home in Goffstown, N.H., where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold them to Maclean and others. They arranged the transactions using cell phones and social media. On several occasions, Maclean transported the remains to Pennsylvania.
Other defendants who have entered guilty pleas in connection with the scheme include the Lodges, Pauley, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra. Lampi received a 15-month prison sentence, and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months. Cedric and Denise Lodge, Taylor, and Ensanian are still awaiting sentencing.
Separately, Candace Chapman-Scott was sentenced to 15 years in prison after stealing human remains from her job at an Arkansas crematorium and selling them to Pauley in Pennsylvania.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the East Pennsboro Township Police Department are handling the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin is prosecuting the case.
Prosecutors noted that the maximum penalty for Maclean’s offense under federal law is 10 years in prison, a term of supervised release, and a fine. The judge will determine the sentence after considering federal statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
In 2023, the FBI raided Maclean’s business, Kat’s Creepy Creations, in Peabody, Mass., and searched her home in Salem, Mass. The shop sold eerie dolls and figures, some of which incorporated actual human remains. At the time, prosecutors accused Maclean of purchasing two partially dissected human heads for $600 from the former Harvard Medical School morgue manager and charged her with transporting stolen goods.
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