Harvard allowed criminals to roam morgue and shop for body parts like 'trinkets at a flea market,' 19 families say in lawsuit

• A class-action lawsuit over Harvard's morgue scandal now involves 19 families of donors.
• The lawsuit alleges that Harvard "abandoned" donors' remains in "a place of freakish desecration."

Nineteen families have joined a class-action lawsuit against Harvard and its medical school over the alleged human remains trafficking scheme that resulted in heads, brains, skin, and bones being sold on the black market.

Federal prosecutors in June indicted the Harvard Medical School's morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, along with his wife and several others, and accused them of conspiring to transport and sell human remains.

They have pleaded not guilty in the case.

The human remains came from people across New England who — prior to their deaths — volunteered to donate their bodies to Harvard's anatomical gifts program.

The donors had participated in Harvard's anatomical gifts program "in the hope and expectation that this final act of service and kindness could help train [a] new generation of doctors," a court document filed Tuesday said.

But instead of treating the donors' remains with respect and dignity, Harvard "abandoned the remains in a facility that was a place of freakish desecration, where, according to the indictments, criminals were allowed to roam and pick over loved ones' remains for bits like trinkets at a flea market."

Ultimately, up to 400 cadavers could have been used in human remains trafficking scheme, a separate lawsuit filed in June said.

Harvard did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the newly filed documents.

Among the victims of the alleged trafficking scheme was a Korean War veteran who died of lung cancer and hoped his donation could help save others from the same disease. Another was a diesel mechanic and fisherman who chose Harvard's anatomical gifts program due to the institution's prestigious reputation, joking that he would be the first in his family to go to Harvard.

One woman was a former English teacher who valued education so strongly that she wanted her remains to go to "the very best school with the very best, absolutely smartest medical students." Another woman had chosen Harvard because she never finished high school and wanted to instill in her daughter the importance of education.

The lawsuit said Harvard Medical School billed its anatomical gifts program as an "indispensable component of medical and dental education and research," and said the human remains donations would allow students to "alleviate human pain and suffering."

Instead, federal prosecutors alleged, the donors' body parts were dissected and sold off for a variety of macabre purposes.

Some of the items, including a human skull, ended up in a doll shop called "Kat's Creepy Creations" in Salem, Massachusetts. In another instance, human skin was shipped to a man in Pennsylvania who'd been hired to "tan the skin to create leather," the lawsuit said. Lodge even once received $600 for two dissected faces, according to prosecutors.

The lawsuit alleged the remains were "desecrated and looted, dismembered and sold for grotesque art and unknown gratifications."

The lawsuit faulted Harvard for failing to ensure the remains were safe and secure, and for failing to appropriately screen, select, train, and supervise the people staffing the morgue.

"Every individual who made this selfless, final gift for the betterment of others was a beloved person — someone who had lived and breathed, walked on this Earth, laughed, loved and cried, hugged their loved ones, and, ultimately, tried to make the world a better place by entrusting their remains to Harvard," the lawsuit said.