Norwood family donated aunt’s remains to Harvard, ‘thinking that she was in the best hands possible’

NORWOOD, Mass. — Boston 25 spoke exclusively with a Norwood woman who said she just received her aunt’s cremated remains back from the Harvard Medical School morgue last fall.

Sarah Hill said her aunt Christine Eppich of South Dennis died from pancreatic cancer in March of 2021. But she had wanted her remains donated to the Harvard Program to hopefully benefit many lives down the road.

“She was my favorite aunt. She worked with special needs children and adults and everyone loved Christine,” says Hill.

Hill says her aunt Christine had made arrangements well before she passed to have her body donated to the Harvard Anatomical program. And now the family wonders what could have happened to her body in that program after finding out about the alleged human remains trafficking ring on Wednesday.

“It’s been a frantic 24 hours. I received Christine’s remains back this fall after not having them for two years,” Hill told Boston 25. “You know you give your loved one to a program like Harvard and you think that everything will be done properly. And that people would never profit from something like this.”

The former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School, Cedric Lodge, 55, his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, and Katrina Maclean, 44, owner of Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody are among several people accused of trafficking body parts stolen from the school’s morgue that were intended for use by researchers in a grotesque multi-state scheme.

“Christine wanted other people to benefit from her passing so that she could be studied. So that the doctors of the future or tomorrow could study her body and find not only a cure for pancreatic cancer but for some other, you know, disease,” said Hill. “And we as family members gave her body to Harvard thinking that she was in the best hands possible.”

Some of the body parts were sold via Facebook and PayPal and shipped through U.S. Postal Service mail, court documents allege.

Prosecutors allege that from 2018 through 2022, Cedric Lodge, while managing the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hill is the next of kin for her aunt and says she called the Harvard Program’s 24-hour hotline Wednesday night and was told he aunt’s name was listed on the “Potentially Affected List.”

According to Hill, the woman who answered her call said not all donated bodies from 2018-2023 will be placed on the list

The medical and dental programs accepted bodies 18 and older.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is working to identify and contact as many of the victims and victims’ families affected by this case as possible.

Anyone who believes they or a family member may have been affected by this case is urged to call the Victim and Witness Unit at 717-614-4249 or email usapam-victim.information@usdoj.gov.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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