Postmortem Ep. 1: The crime

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WBUR

True Crime, Missing, Mystery, Boston, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hundreds of people have donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School, hoping to advance science and train the next generation of doctors. But in the basement of the nation's most prestigious medical institution, something went terribly wrong in recent years.

In the five-part series Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard, WBUR reporter Ally Jarmanning takes us deep into the macabre story of what happened, and how the elite university became a stop on a nationwide network of human remains trading.

In Episode 1, police find buckets of body parts in a basement in Pennsylvania.

We hear from the district attorney there and learn more about how this case connects to Harvard and Cedric Lodge, the morgue manager accused of stealing and selling donor body parts.

An old classmate of Lodge's reflects on the man at the center of the scandal. And doctors who know Harvard well ponder how this could have happened — here, of all places.

If you have questions, comments or tips about this story, you can reach us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Must remember do not forget
0:08.0	remind me to bring photo ID
0:11.0	reminder set babe can you make sure I don't forget Photo ID. Reminder, set.
0:13.0	Babe, can you make sure I don't forget my photo ID when I vote?
0:17.0	All right, love.
0:20.0	However you remember, you'll need photo ID to vote on the 2nd of May.
0:24.1	Find out more at Electoralcommission.org. UK slash voter ID.
0:28.9	A heads up. This episode can get graphic at times. We're talking about dead bodies here.
0:36.2	Take care while listening.
0:38.9	W-B-U-R Podcasts, Boston. It's June 2023, Harvard Medical School.
0:47.0	Dr. Sabina Hildebrandt gets an urgent message.
0:55.0	On the Tuesday we were told next day as a meeting about something or other but
1:01.1	importantly show up.
1:03.2	So that next day Dr Hildebrandt logs on as directed.
1:07.5	When she does she sees all of her colleagues in the Harvard anatomy program on her Zoom screen.
1:13.0	The professors who help students learn about the human body
1:16.0	and the staff who keep the anatomical gift program running.
1:20.0	The Dean of Medical Education is there too,
1:22.0	and he has some very, very bad news.
1:25.2	This morning, the Morck technician, former Morck technician,
1:30.8	said Rick Lodd Chad been taken into custody by the FBI.
1:35.3	An hour later the news was given to the press.
	...

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