A woman from Bradford, Massachusetts, has admitted in federal court to trafficking stolen human remains across state lines.
On Monday, December 8, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania reported that Katrina Maclean, 46, pled guilty before Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann to interstate transportation of stolen human remains.
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According to US Attorney Brian D. Miller, Maclean admitted that between 2018 and 2022, she purchased human remains from Harvard Medical School that she knew were stolen. She then moved the remains from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors claim Maclean resold stolen human remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley, who previously pled guilty to a criminal information.
Authorities believe the bones were stolen by Cedric Lodge, the Harvard Medical School morgue manager for the Anatomical Gifts Program in Boston, Massachusetts. According to investigators, Lodge stole organs and other body parts from cadavers donated for medical study and education before their scheduled cremation between 2018 and 2022.
Officials claimed Lodge occasionally transported stolen remains from Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold them to Maclean and others, arranging the deals via cell phones and social media. On many occasions, Maclean took the remains to Pennsylvania.
Other defendants who have previously pleaded guilty in connection with the conspiracy include the Lodges, Pauley, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra. Lampi was condemned to 15 months in prison, while Pereyra received an 18-month sentence. Cedric and Denise Lodge, Taylor, and Ensanian are currently awaiting their punishment.
Separately, Candace Chapman-Scott was sentenced to 15 years in jail for stealing human remains from an Arkansas cremation 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. Alisan V. Martin, an assistant US attorney, is prosecuting the case.
Prosecutors stated that the maximum penalty under federal law for Maclean’s offense is ten years in jail, supervised release, and a fine. The judge will impose any sentence after considering federal sentencing statutes and guidelines.
The FBI raided Maclean’s business, Kat’s Creepy Creations, in Peabody, Mass., in 2023, and searched her Salem, Mass. home as well. The business specialized in spooky dolls and sculptures, some of which featured actual human remains. At the time, authorities accused Maclean of paying $600 for two partially dissected human heads from the former Harvard Medical School morgue manager, and she was charged with carrying stolen property.
