WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Note: The video is from August 2022.
A former Cumberland County resident pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to charges tied to his role in a conspiracy to illegally purchase and sell human remains on the internet, U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam announced Friday.
Jeremy Pauley, 41, who now resides in Susquehanna County, pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property at a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann in Williamsport, Karam said in a press release.
The maximum sentence for the first count is five years, and the maximum imprisonment for the latter is 10 years. Both also carry a fine of $250,000 each and a maximum term of supervised release of three years, according to Karam.
Pauley admitted to being part of a network of people who bought and sold human remains that had been stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary between 2018 and 2022. Seven other suspects have been charged as part of the investigation, Karam said.
Pauley was originally charged after an investigation that began on June 14, 2022, when police received a phone call regarding suspicious activity at a home on the 200 block of North Enola Road in Enola, Cumberland County, where Pauley was residing at the time.
Police executed a search warrant at the home and collected three to five buckets containing suspected human remains, which were taken to the Cumberland County Coroner's Office and later transported to Dauphin County for testing, according to the original criminal complaint.
According to investigators, a forensic examiner later determined the buckets contained:
- human brains (2)
- human skin and human fat (6 pieces)
- a human heart
- a human kidney
- a human skull with hair
- human livers (2)
- a human trachea
- a human child's mandible with teeth
- human lungs (2)
Further investigation determined Pauley was purchasing some of the remains from a woman in Arkansas, whom police identified as Candace Scott. She was indicted in her state earlier this year for her alleged role in the conspiracy.
Scott is accused of using her job at Arkansas Central Mortuary Services to access and sell human body parts to Pauley, including fetuses, brains, hearts, lungs, genitalia, large pieces of skin and other items.
Five other co-conspirators were also charged in the scheme, including James William Nott, from Kentucky, who sold remains on Facebook under the name "William Burke."
The FBI found his home filled with humans remains when they searched it in July. An agent later wrote that the skulls were "decorated around the furniture."
Also charged in the case are Cedric Lodge and his wife, Denise, Karam said.
Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, located in Boston, Massachusetts, stole organs and other parts of cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremations.
Lodge at times transported stolen remains from Boston to his home, where he and his wife allegedly sold them to other members of the conspiracy, including Katrina Mclean and Joshua Taylor, Karam said.
At times, Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and Taylor to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase, the indictment claims.
On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania. On other occasions, the Lodges shipped stolen remains to Taylor and others out of state, according to the indictment.
Maclean and Taylor resold the stolen remains to other people, including Pauley, for profit, Karam said.
Pauley then allegedly sold many of the stolen remains he purchased to other individuals, including Matthew Lampi, who has also been charged as part of the alleged conspiracy, according to Karam.
Lampi and Pauley bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments, Karam said in the indictment.
Pauley's preliminary hearing was postponed more than five times prior to this week's plea agreement.