United States of America v. Joshua Taylor

Scranton, Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with interstate transport of stolen human remains. Trafficking Stolen Human Remains

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty To Trafficking Stolen Human Remains

The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Joshua Taylor, age 46, of Wernersville, Pennsylvania, pled guilty on May 15, 2025, before Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann to interstate transport of stolen human remains.



According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Taylor admitted that, from 2018 through 2022, he bought human remains that he knew to have been stolen from Harvard Medical School and transported them from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania. Taylor also sold stolen human remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley, who previously entered a guilty plea to a felony information.



The indictment alleged that from 2018 through 2022, 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. It is also alleged that Lodge at times transported stolen remains from Boston to his residence in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains to Joshua Taylor, and others, making arrangements via cellular telephone and social media websites. On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania.



Several other defendants have pleaded guilty, including Denise Lodge, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra. Lampi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Denise Lodge is awaiting sentencing. Additionally, Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.



The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the East Pennsboro Township Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan Martin is prosecuting the case.