TRAILER: Last Seen S4 'Postmortem': The Stolen Bodies of Harvard

Last Seen

WBUR

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

4.7 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hundreds of people donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School hoping to advance science and train the next generation of doctors. Meanwhile, prosecutors say that for years, the school's morgue manager treated it like a storefront, letting potential customers browse body parts and bringing home skin and brains to be shipped out to people across the country.

Last year's arrest of the morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, exposed a nationwide network of human remains swapping that ensnared Harvard and lay bare the school’s broken promises to donors.

In this five-part narrative series, host and reporter Ally Jarmanning explains what happened at Harvard, talks to donor families about their interrupted grief, and meets with human remains collectors to find out why they’re interested in this macabre field. We explore the dark origins of our nation’s medical schools. And we try to answer the haunting questions that drive the series: How should we treat the dead? And who gets to decide?

All 5 episodes coming soon. Follow Last Seen wherever you get your podcasts.

Resources: Read more about WBUR's reporting on the case here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	W-B-U-R Podcasts, Boston.
0:09.4	I have been trying to work on a story about the Harvard morgue.
0:14.8	I'm sure you've heard about the scandal involving the morgue recently?
0:18.6	No.
0:19.7	Oh, well, I will fill you in.
0:23.0	New at five, police arrested a man from Pennsylvania's mid-state for allegedly buying body parts through Facebook.
0:31.0	It is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
0:34.0	Buckets of body parts found in a Pennsylvania basement will lead the FBI to the campus of the
0:39.8	nation's most prestigious university.
0:42.3	Breaking news that we've been following all day, a huge... most prestigious the university.
0:43.0	breaking news that we've been following all day, a huge story here.
0:46.0	Human body parts, taken by a manager at the Harvard Medical School,
0:50.0	morgue, and then sold to customers online.
0:53.0	Investigators say the body parts came from cadavers donated to Harvard and used for educational purposes.
0:59.0	And that's Harvard, like you would think that your family would be safe going there.
1:04.0	What's the inventory at your house right now?
1:10.8	How many do you have?
1:11.8	Let me count. So nine full human skulls,
1:14.9	one articulated fragmented human skull. This story gives a glimpse into a macabre
1:22.0	and lucrative world, a nationwide network of human remains trading.
1:27.0	So my first skull is right there on the top shelf.
1:30.0	I've had others over the years, but that's my first and my favorite.
	...

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