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Up to 150 people join class action lawsuit against Harvard University, morgue manager Cedric Lodge over stolen body parts

150 families join class-action lawsuit against Harvard in stolen body parts case
150 families join class-action lawsuit against Harvard in stolen body parts case 00:16

CAMBRIDGE - Up to 150 people have joined a class action lawsuit against Harvard University in the stolen body parts case. 

Investigators say former morgue manager Cedric Lodge took the remains and sold them online. 

The Keches Law Group firm says the lawsuit alleges that body parts were "unlawfully mishandled, stolen and sold," and that Lodge and Harvard were negligent in making sure the remains of loved ones were handled correctly.

WBZ-TV has reached out to Harvard for comment but hasn't heard back.

According to a federal indictment out of Pennsylvania, Lodge, 55, stole dissected portions of human cadavers, took them to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire and then sold them online.

The suit seeks money damages and says the families continue to suffer severe emotional distress  

John Bozek, the Tewksbury man filing the lawsuit, had his mother Adele Mazzone's body donated to Harvard Medical School when she died in 2019. In the lawsuit, he said her body was one of those "mishandled" by Lodge.

Several families have already spoken to WBZ TV, saying how shocked and disgusted they were to learn their loved ones' body parts were stolen and sold.  

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