Owner Of 'Creepy' MA Shop Trafficked Human Remains: FBI

SALEM, MA — A Salem woman, whose Peabody's market named "Kat's Creepy Creations" was raided by the FBI in March, was indicted as part of what the United States Attorney General's Office called "a nationwide network of individuals (who) bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary."

According to the indictment, obtained by Patch on Wednesday, Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, was among those who bought remains from the manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue before reselling them to people in multiple states, including Massachusetts.

(Also on Patch: 6 Charged After Body Parts Stolen From Harvard Shipped Across States)

She was one of six people that the federal grand jury charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, according to the U.S. Attorney General's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

FBI investigators spent much of the day on March 7 combing through Kat's Creepy Creations — a North Shore artisan shop at the Mills 58 Peabody shopping district on Pulaski Street that, according to its Facebook page, included items of "horror, macabre, oddities, and everything creepy."

The FBI also conducted a search of the owner's Salem house that day but assured at the time there was "no threat to public safety."

"This is an isolated incident and is unrelated to the remaining Mills 58 businesses and property ownership," Mills 58 management said in March.

WBZ-TV reported that agents were at the suite for several hours and that "agents were lugging what looked like wrapped suitcases and boxes out of the shop."

Cedric Lodge, 55, the Harvard Medical School morgue manager, is accused of working with his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, to sell the remains — including dissected faces and other skin, brains, and bones — which were sometimes shipped through the U.S. Postal Service, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, Harvard Medical School maintained an onsite morgue facility where donated cadavers were stored and used for education and research purposes. It said Maclean was among those allowed to "enter the morgue and choose what remains to purchase."

"Robbing families of the remains of their loved ones is an unconscionable act and confounds our collective sense of decency," Christopher Nielsen, the Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service said in a statement. "Using the United States mail to facilitate the theft and shipment of human remains is a federal crime and the Postal Inspection Service will do everything in its power to stop it."

"The defendants violated the trust of the deceased and their families all in the name of greed," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire added. "While today's charges cannot undo the unfathomable pain this heinous crime has caused, the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to see that justice is served."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)