Families of Harvard Morgue Victims Break Silence on Scandal

The families of the victims of the Harvard morgue scandal have broken their silence around the horrifying incident involving the remains of their loved ones, whose skin was sold and allegedly used to make leather.

Cedric Lodge, the 55-year-old former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School, is accused of stealing dissected body parts from human cadavers in the morgue and allegedly shipping the parts through the mail to various recipients.

His wife, 44-year-old Katrina MacLean, is among six people accused of trafficking the stolen body parts that were intended for use by researchers but were used for much more grisly purposes—including creating human skin leather, according to a federal indictment.

According to the indictment, Lodge would have conducted this illegal traffic for about five years between 2018 and 2022, stealing organs from donated bodies before their scheduled cremation. Lodge had worked at the morgue for nearly 30 years.

Sarah Hill, the niece of one of the women whose body was donated to the school for educational purposes, told local news station Boston 25 that Harvard Program's 24-hour hotline informed her on Wednesday that her aunt was on the list of bodies potentially affected by Lodge's illegal operations.

Hill said that her aunt, Christine Eppich of South Dennis, had arranged for her body to be donated to the Harvard Anatomical program long before she passed away, wishing to help the evolution of medicine. She died of pancreatic cancer in March 2021.

"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," Hill said. "And we as family members gave her body to Harvard thinking that she was in the best hands possible."

In a letter to the community, the dean of Harvard Medical School, George Q. Daley called the scandal "an abhorrent betrayal."

Another likely victim's family member spoke to CBS News Boston on Wednesday, breaking down in tears when talking about her dad, Nick Pichowicz, who donated his body after he died in 2019 at the age of 87.

"I can't believe that," Pichowicz's daughter, Paula Peltonavich, of New Hampshire, said. "Like what eyes? I mean skin? It's just disgusting. I don't even know; I don't want to know."

"We're angry, and hurt," she said, after it was confirmed that her father's body was likely involved in the grim traffic of human organs. "I just don't see how people could do something like this. I can't understand—my dad."

It's not yet known how many bodies were violated, but the U.S. Attorney's Office is working to identify as many of the victims and get in touch with their families.