Postmortem, Ep. 2: The victims

Last Seen

WBUR

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

4.7 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When news of the Harvard morgue scandal went viral, no one was hit harder than the families of people who had donated their bodies for study at the nation's most prestigious medical school. As if grieving the loss of a loved one wasn't enough, now there was this: the specter of a family member's body dismembered and sold to strangers for profit.

In Episode 2 of Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard, reporter Ally Jarmanning talks with Amber Haggstrom, whose mother donated her body to Harvard after death. We hear Haggstrom's outrage and raw emotion as she learns the news — and her frustration at Harvard's lack of answers as to how it failed to protect her mother's body.

We hear, too, from the attorney representing the families, and trying to hold Harvard accountable.

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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.
0:36.1	Take care while listening.
0:37.7	W-B-U-R Podcasts. Boston. It's a couple weeks before Halloween.
0:50.0	It's a couple weeks before Halloween,
0:52.0	and I'm driving around a New Hampshire suburb.
0:55.0	It's a very cute neighborhood.
0:57.0	Every house has some pumpkins in the front yard.
1:01.0	There are lots of kids here. I can tell by the bicycles piled up in the driveways and swing sets and the yards.
1:07.0	It's the kind of neighborhood that seems perfect for trick-or-treating.
1:11.0	I can imagine the swarms of kids traipsing around in costumes in just a few weeks.
1:16.0	This house has the 12 foot skeleton in front of it, a skeleton with sunglasses on waving from the front porch.
1:23.0	Spooky season is in full swing here.
1:26.0	Almost every single house is decked out for the holiday.
1:30.0	There's no shortage of Halloween in this neighborhood.
1:32.0	If you want to... There's no shortage of Halloween in this neighborhood.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBUR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBUR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.