(CORVALLIS, Ore.) — Two women have been arrested in connection with a dating app scheme that led to the shooting of a man in Corvallis, Oregon, authorities said.
Julia Dell Yepez, 20, and Alexa Montano Corral, 20, were taken into custody following an investigation into the May 17 shooting of a man they allegedly met through the Chispa dating app, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators believe the women used the app to lure the victim with the intention of robbery. The victim, who has not been identified, remains hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Chispa is a dating app where Latino and Latina singles can connect with others in their area. The company did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
According to investigators, Yepez and Corral are also suspects in similar criminal activity in a nearby county.
The incident unfolded around 5:30 a.m. local time on May 17 when emergency dispatchers received a 911 call reporting a shooting near Highway 99W and Lakeside Drive in Corvallis. Witnesses described seeing two Hispanic women, one wearing a long-sleeve black shirt, fleeing the scene on foot.
Yepez was arrested Tuesday and faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, first-degree assault and kidnapping. She is being held at the Benton County Jail on $300,000 bail, court records show.
Corral, who was arrested Thursday, faces multiple conspiracy charges. Her bail was set at $250,000, according to court records.
The case has prompted authorities to issue renewed warnings about dating app safety.
“Always meet in public and never isolate yourself until you are certain of the other person’s intentions,” the sheriff’s office advised in a statement.
Anyone who may have had contact with either suspect through dating apps is urged to contact the Benton County Sheriff’s Office or submit anonymous tips at 541-573-8477.
The investigation remains ongoing with assistance from multiple law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service.
(NEW ORLEANS) — A fourth woman has been arrested for allegedly helping inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail last week, police said.
Casey Smith, 30, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly assisting two of the 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
“Through investigation, members of the NOPD’s Special Operations Division Tactical II team obtained information linking Smith to allegedly aiding at least two of the reported escapees as they were transported to multiple locations in the hours following their escape,” the New Orleans Police Department said in a press release on Friday announcing the arrest.
Smith allegedly admitted to aiding in the escapees’ transport along with 32-year-old Cortnie Harris, who was arrested on Wednesday, police said. Smith has been booked for accessory after the fact to simple escape.
Smith is the fifth person, including a jail employee, arrested in connection with the jailbreak.
In addition to Harris, state police announced on Wednesday that 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste was arrested and charged with felony counts of being accessories after the fact. They were both booked at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center, officials said.
On Thursday, a Slidell woman was taken into custody for allegedly helping a fugitive who is still at large following the jailbreak, Louisiana State Police said.
Connie Weeden, 59, was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on Thursday. She faces a felony charge of accessory after the fact for allegedly assisting Jermaine Donald, one of the five escapees still on the run, police said.
“Weeden was in contact via phone both before and after the escape,” Louisiana State Police officials said in a statement. “Investigators determined that after the escape, she provided Donald with cash through a cell phone app.”
Donald remains at large, along with four others who broke out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. Authorities have recaptured five of the original 10 inmates who escaped.
Law enforcement officials warned that helping fugitives will carry serious consequences.
“Those who choose to assist or conceal these individuals are violating the law and will be held accountable,” said state police. “Harboring fugitives threatens the safety of our communities and will not be tolerated.”
Under Louisiana law, a conviction for accessory after the fact carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both.
Amid an ongoing investigation into the escape of inmates, the Orleans Parish District Attorney issued subpoenas on Thursday to Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson and other sheriff’s office staff members.
The order demanded access to emails, text messages and internal messages from or to Hutson and other sheriff’s office staff and contractors, including those to Sterling Williams, a jail maintenance worker who was arrested in connection with the jailbreak.
Williams, a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish Justice Center, was arrested and booked into jail Tuesday morning, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Williams allegedly shut off the water to a toilet to help clear the way for the inmates to escape, sources said. The prisoners, including three who are charged with second-degree murder and remain on the run, were able to crawl out through a hole after ripping the toilet off its hinges. Williams’s lawyer has denied he intended to help in the inmates’ escape and said a deputy asked him to shut the water off due to a clogged fixture.
“Did he admit he turned the water off? Yes, absolutely, and we’re not denying that. Did he confess to conspiring to aid violent criminals to escape the jail, climb a wall, run across the interstate and terrorize the city? Absolutely not,” lawyer Michael Kennedy told ABC News.
Four other jail employees have been suspended in this investigation.
(DALTON, Ga.) — The Georgia teen who was arrested in a case of mistaken identity — and then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over her undocumented status — is saying a day after her release on bond that her time in custody was “life-changing.”
Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was arrested on May 5 in Dalton, Georgia, when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that made an illegal turn. Those citations were later dropped once officials realized there was a mix-up, Dalton Assistant Police Chief Chris Crossen said.
But she was still detained by ICE after it was discovered she was an undocumented immigrant.
As she was being transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, she stopped at some offices in Atlanta, she said.
“They had me in a room by myself for nine hours. I didn’t know what was going on. It was never explained,” Arias-Cristobal told Chattanooga, Tennessee, ABC affiliate WTVC Thursday after her release from detention..
“Being in Stewart changed my life. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s life-changing,” she said.
Arias-Cristobal, a student at Dalton State College, was in the ICE detention center for two weeks.
“It was scary. I was terrified,” Arias-Cristobal told WTVC.
Arias-Cristobal was released on a $1,500 bond and the government did not wish to appeal, according to her attorney.
“We do not have another hearing currently scheduled. It would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026,” Charles Kuck, an attorney for Arias-Cristobal, told WTVC.
She was granted bond on Wednesday and reunited with family at her home on Thursday.
The teen came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 4 years old and is ineligible for relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects some migrants from deportation if they were brought to the country as children, an attorney for Arias-Cristobal told ABC News.
Arias-Cristobal was not eligible to register for the DACA program because it ended before she became eligible to apply at 16 years old.
The Department of Homeland Security said following her detainment that it is committed to ordering Arias-Cristobal to “self-deport” to Mexico and that she “admitted to illegally entering the United States and has no pending applications with USCIS.”
(NEW YORK) — The alleged leader of a neo-Nazi cult based overseas has been extradited to the United States and accused of inspiring “multiple senseless killings” around the world, including the shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, that four months ago left one student dead and another injured, according to the Justice Department.
In a letter to a federal judge filed Friday morning, the Justice Department said that Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national arrested in Moldova last year, is scheduled to be arraigned later in the day in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili was indicted last year on several federal charges, including two counts of soliciting hate crimes and other violent attacks. According to the Justice Department, he was a leader of the “Manian Murder Cult,” a Russian and Ukrainian-based extremist group also known as “MKY” that promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and others it deems “undesirables.”
In announcing his indictment last year, the Justice Department said Chkhikvishvili – who allegedly also goes by the moniker “Commander Butcher” – distributed a self-authored “Hater’s Handbook” encouraging readers to commit school shootings and other mass “terror attacks,” providing suggested methods and strategies.
The Justice Department also said he planned and solicited help for a mass casualty attack targeting Jews and other minorities in New York City on New Year’s Eve, but the person he solicited was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Since his arrest in July of last year, Chkhikvishvili had been held in Moldova. But he is now expected to appear is a U.S. federal court on Friday, and federal prosecutors hope a federal judge will agree to keep him detained pending trial, according to the Justice Department’s filing.
“The defendant’s repeated solicitations of violence have had the intended effect. They have directly resulted in real violence, including multiple senseless killings, in the United States and around the world,” the Justice Department said in its filing.
As an example, the Justice Department wrote: “In January 2025, a 17-year-old student killed one individual and injured another before committing suicide inside Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The attacker livestreamed part of the attack. Prior to the attack, in an audio recording posted online and attributed to him, the attacker claimed he was taking action on behalf of MKY and at least one other group. The attacker’s [writings] explicitly mentioned the defendant by name and included numerous references to MKY’s founder, Yegor Krasnov. The attacker stated that he would write Krasnov’s name on his gun.”
The Justice Department also said an August 2024 knife attack in Turkey and the April 2022 murder of an elderly woman in Romania were connected to Chkhikvishvili’s actions.
“The defendant has consistently demonstrated that he is capable of orchestrating deadly attacks from behind a computer screen at home,” the Justice Department added. “Moreover, the defendant has repeatedly stated that he has committed acts of violence and that he intends to commit more. The Court should take the defendant at his word and detain him in the interest of public safety.”
In a statement issued Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the case against Chkhikvishvili “is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Harvard University sued the Trump administration Friday, alleging that the decision to revoke the school’s ability to enroll international students “is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.”
The Trump administration said on Thursday the school lost its ability to use the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (which allows for noncitizens to study at the university under a specific visa) because it had not complied with demands sent last month to supply information on student visa holders.
“As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the university.
Harvard President Alan Gerber pushed back in a message to the university on Friday.
“The government has claimed that its destructive action is based on Harvard’s failure to comply with requests for information from the US Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Harvard did respond to the Department’s requests as required by law,” Gerber said.
In its complaint, Harvard said there is “no lawful justification” for canceling the status.
The school accused the administration of waging an “unprecedented and retaliatory attack” because the university supports policies the administration doesn’t like.
“The government has casually discarded core First Amendment protections, the protections of procedural due process, and DHS’s own regulations to immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and its community. Harvard’s more than 7,000 F-1 and J-1 visa holders — and their dependents — have become pawns in the government’s escalating campaign of retaliation,” the complaint reads.
The dispute over international students is the latest development in the administration’s standoff with one of the country’s most prestigious universities.
Trump has threatened the school’s tax-exempt status and is withholding billions in federal funding after the school’s refusal to comply with the administration’s demands regarding campus policies and governance, including actions on antisemitism and the use of DEI on campus.
Noem wrote to Harvard in April requesting a tranche of information be given to DHS in order for the school to retain its SEVP status.
According to the letter, she asked Harvard to give information over on student visa holder’s “known” illegally activity; violent activity; threats to students or faculty; disciplinary actions taken as a result of being involved in a protest; information on whether the student obstructed the school’s learning environment; and the coursework that the student is taking to maintain the visa status.
Noem said the school did not provide adequate information in response, and that it is a “privilege, not a right” for students to study at American universities.
The latest poll by ABC News/Washington Post found most Americans (66%) took Harvard’s side in the conflict. Thirty-two percent of respondents sided with the Trump administration.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW ORLEANS) — A Slidell woman was arrested and accused of helping a fugitive who is still at large from the massive New Orleans jailbreak elude capture, Louisiana State Police said.
Connie Weeden, 59, was taken into custody in Slidell and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on Thursday. In addition to jail employees, she is the third person arrested for assisting the Orleans Justice Center’s escaped inmates.
Weeden faces a felony charge of accessory after the fact for allegedly assisting Jermaine Donald, one of the five escapees still on the run.
“Weeden was in contact via phone both before and after the escape,” said LSP officials in a statement. “Investigators determined that after the escape, she provided Donald with cash through a cell phone app.”
Donald remains at large, along with four others who broke out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. Authorities have recaptured five of the original 10 who escaped.
Law enforcement officials warned that helping fugitives will carry serious consequences. “Those who choose to assist or conceal these individuals are violating the law and will be held accountable,” said state police. “Harboring fugitives threatens the safety of our communities and will not be tolerated.”
Under Louisiana law, a conviction for accessory after the fact carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both.
The LSP announced on Wednesday that 32-year-old Cortnie Harris and 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste were arrested and charged with felony counts of being accessories after the fact. They were both booked at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center, officials said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Orleans Parish District Attorney issued subpoenas to the Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, and other OPSO staff members as part of an ongoing investigation into the escape of inmates.
The order demanded access to emails, text messages, internal messages, from or to Hutson and other OPSO staff and contractors, including those to Sterling Williams, the jail maintenance worker who was arrested in connection with the jailbreak.
Williams, a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish Justice Center, was arrested and booked into jail Tuesday morning, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Williams allegedly shut off the water to a toilet to help clear the way for the inmates to escape, sources said. The prisoners, including three who are charged with second-degree murder and remain on the run, were able to get out after ripping the toilet off its hinges.
Four other jail employees have been suspended in this investigation.
(SAN DIEGO) — At least two people are confirmed dead and eight others injured after a small plane crashed in a neighborhood of San Diego on Thursday morning, spewing jet fuel and starting a large fire that damaged about 10 buildings and multiple cars, fire officials said.
The small private jet crashed seconds before landing at about 3:45 am. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Five people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and a sixth person was injured while climbing out of a window, officials said. Two others were treated for minor injuries. All the injuries were treated at the evacuation center and no one was transferred from the scene.
All the fatalities appear to be from the plane itself, San Diego Assistant Fire Chief of Emergency Operations Dan Eddy said at a press conference earlier Thursday. Officials do not yet know how many people were aboard the plane.
Multiple homes have been destroyed in the neighborhood, according to Eddy, who said earlier the crash site looked “like a movie scene.” One home was permanently destroyed, officials said Thursday.
There was dense fog in the area on Thursday morning and Eddy told reporters he could only see 40 to 50 feet in front of him.
In air traffic control audio from minutes before the crash, you can hear the pilot ask about the weather, according to LiveATC.net. Air traffic controllers told the pilot the weather station at Montgomery Airport was down and the pilot asks for more weather information.
The controller tells him the weather for nearby Miramar Airport, according to the audio.
“Ugh, that doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot responds.
The plane was flying from Wichita, Kansas, to San Diego’s Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport when it crashed. The plane originated in Teterboro, according to FlightRadar24 records, before landing in Wichita at 1:50 a.m. Central time. It left for San Diego at 2:35 a.m. local time.
It was roughly 500 feet in the air at its last radar check-in, according to the FAA.
Over 100 people have been displaced as a result of the crash, according to officials. Murphy Canyon, the neighborhood where the crash happened, is one of largest military housing units in the world, according to San Diego Naval Base Commanding Officer Capt. Robert Heely.
Multiple elementary schools have been closed for the day due to the crash, according to officials
“Our city will be supporting these families who are impacted here. They’re part of the military community that makes up our city,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a press conference.
Several factors contributed to the crash, according to Gloria.
“Visibility was relatively low at the hour that the fight was making its approach to Montgomery Gibbs, the plane clipped a transmission line, an electricity transmission line and that caused it to fall into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood that’s there,” Gloria said in an interview on ABC News Live.
“Beyond that, we’re going to wait for our professionals at the federal level to give us some more of the investigative results. But right now, [this] is a terrible tragedy of the loss of life of those aboard the plane,” Gloria said.
The plane that crashed can hold eight to 10 people, including the pilot, but it’s still unclear how many were on board.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what this scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see for the police officers and firefighters to run in there, start trying to evacuate people out of the way, and doing anything and everything they could to try to save somebody’s life is really heroic,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a press conference.
Residents were evacuated to a nearby school and officials went home to home to find out if there was anybody inside, Eddy said.
“I was half-asleep and I saw a flash at the window and heard a bang,” said Jennifer Hoffman, who lives a couple blocks from the crash. “I thought it was lightning to be honest, I even checked the weather to see if it was raining out. And then I heard like bunches of pops and I was like, ‘That can’t be lightning.’ I went downstairs, I checked outside and I saw the neighborhood behind us was bright red. It was awful.”
The plane directly hit multiple homes and cars, setting them ablaze, before running down the street, Eddy said.
“There was a big explosion and I woke up, I looked out the window and there was fire all in front of my house,” said neighborhood resident Jessica Schrader. “I just kept hearing explosions and the fire was up to right in front of my front door. So I’m trying to figure out how to escape with my kids.”
“We yelled for our neighbors — our neighbors put a ladder up to their fence, it’s about 8-foot-tall,” she said. “We were able to climb the ladder and jump onto their trampoline to escape — me and my children.”
There was no mayday call before this crash, according to radio traffic. The last communication was the pilot announcing on the radio that he was 3 miles out and landing. The tower was closed at the time and this is standard procedure.
The whole neighborhood is still on lockdown as investigators continue their work.
The National Transportation Safety Board was also en route to the scene.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who the Trump administration has targeted for deportation after he helped organize pro-Palestinian protests as a student at Columbia University, met his infant son for the first time, prior to his immigration hearing Thursday in Louisiana.
Thursday’s hearing was attended by Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple’s son on April 21 during Khalil’s ongoing detention in Louisiana.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since ICE agents arrested him in the lobby of his apartment building in New York City in March.
Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled last month that Khalil is deportable based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertion that his continued presence and actions in the country poses “adverse foreign policy consequence.” She did not ask to review any evidence backing those claims.
During Thursday’s hearing, Comans denied Khalil’s motion to terminate the case based on his allegation that his arrest and detention is illegal because he was arrested without a warrant.
The judge also declined to hear argument from Khalil’s team pertaining to the government’s allegations that Khalil lied on his application for a green card, saying the issue was “irrelevant” because she had already determined that Khalil was removable.
Judge Comans also heard Khalil’s case for asylum and for withholding of removal to either Algeria or Syria, where he a citizen of both countries. Several expert witnesses were called by Khalil’s team, including U.C. Davis historian Muriam Davis, an expert on the Middle East and North Africa, who testified to the dangers Khalil might face if deported to Algeria and Syria, due to the notoriety of the case.
“In general, his case has achieved an international prominence that would make him a target,” Davis testified.
There were also several heated exchanges between Khalil’s counsel, Marc Van Der Hout, and Judge Comans, who at one point cautioned Van Der Hout “not to argue with her.”
Van Der Hout, his voice rising, replied, “Well, I am going to argue with you.”
“And you’re going to lose,” Comans responded.
Following a break in the proceedings, additional witnesses — including possibly Khalil himself — were expected to testify.
Ahead of the hearing, Khalil’s attorney submitted over 600 pages of documents, declarations, and expert analyses supporting their claim that he is not antisemitic and that he could face torture and death if he were to be deported.
(WASHINGTON) — The newly sworn-in head of the Social Security Administration told agency staff this week that when he was first offered the job in the Trump administration, he wasn’t familiar with the position and had to look it up online.
Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with Social Security managers from around the country on Wednesday that he wasn’t seeking a position in the Trump administration when he received a call about leading the SSA.
“So, I get a phone call and it’s about Social Security. And I’m really, I’m really not, I swear I’m not looking for a job,” Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. “And I’m like, ‘Well, what am I going to do?’ So, I’m Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast.”
“I’m like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?'” said Bisignano, who now oversees one of the largest federal agencies that’s responsible for distributing retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans.
“Put that as the headline for the Post: ‘Great Googler in Chief. Chief in Googler’ or whatever,” said Bisignano, who throughout the meeting repeatedly bemoaned media leaks from within the agency.
While Bisignano, who previously served as chairman and CEO of financial technology company Fiserv Inc., brings experience managing large organizations and overseeing complex payment systems to his new role, he has no prior history working in government or with the Social Security system.
A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
In Wednesday’s 90-minute call, Bisignano sought to calm concerns about the future of the agency amid recent leadership turnover and scrutiny from Elon Musk’s government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
He told the managers in the meeting that Social Security was “not going away,” adding that President Trump also agrees with that.
“This is America’s, you know, safety net — it’s not going away. And hopefully you hear me say this every day,” he said. “You know who wants me to tell people that? Guess. The president.”
“I’ve gotten notes about, ‘Will the turmoil of the last five months end? Are you here to cause more turmoil?'” he said. “I don’t think it’s the turmoil of the past five months, although I will be the fifth since, you know, November, right?” Bisignano said, referring to being the fifth person put in charge of the critical agency since Trump was reelected in November.
“Are we having fun yet? Are we OK?” he asked those on the call.
Bisignano told the managers that they needed to believe that DOGE was “helping to make things better” even if “it may not feel that way.”
“Who’s heard of DOGE? Raise your hand, right? Your bias has to be, because mine is, DOGE is helping make things better. It may not feel that way, but don’t believe everything you read.”
He said DOGE would be involved in rebuilding the Social Security website and integrating artificial intelligence into the agency’s phone support systems.
The head of the agency also told managers that the SSA must adopt a “digital-first” mindset to meet the expectations of the American public, comparing the agency to how consumers interact with tech giants like Amazon.
“You’re competing with experiences that people have with Amazon, right? So if I could get something done at Amazon, why can’t I get something done the same way with Social Security? That’s how people think.”
Bisignano’s officially joins the agency following months of upheaval at the SSA, which has seen a revolving door of leadership amid DOGE’s sweeping efforts to overhaul the agency by modernizing its operations and cutting costs. Among the changes DOGE is pushing are staff reassignments, digital infrastructure overhauls, and the controversial outsourcing of certain administrative functions, according to sources.
Bisignano also said he does not intend to implement reductions in force, or RIFs, at the agency, at least for now. “I have no intent to RIF people, OK? Because that’s the big question,” he said.
When the Wall Street veteran was named Trump’s pick to lead the agency, he faced backlash from Democrats and activists who claimed his selection threatened the future of the Social Security program. In early May, lawmakers, union leaders, and activists protested his selection outside the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Senate vote on his nomination.
On Wednesday’s call, Bisignano appeared to revel in the news.
“Did you guys know there was a protest against me? Who knows there was a protest against me?” he said. “I like that protest — I want to prove them so wrong, man, this is going to be most fun I ever had.”
“I mean, think of that — a poor boy from Brooklyn, from a multi-generational household with a dad who worked in the federal government, and senators picketing that I’m going to ruin it,” he said. “No way — make it great, right?”
Bisignano, during the call, returned several times to his concerns about leaks to the press, suggesting that he would sniff them out.
“My father was a DA and I’m a detective at heart, so I can figure stuff out,” he said.
(BOSTON) — The former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue pleaded guilty to stealing body parts from cadavers donated to the Boston institution and then selling them, federal prosecutors said.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen human remains, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
He pleaded guilty during a change of plea hearing Wednesday in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to his plea agreement.
Lodge, who had managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, admitted to transporting and selling the stolen human remains across multiple states from 2018 to at least March 2020, prosecutors said.
While employed by the morgue, he “removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school,” the U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a press release.
He then took them to his home and, along with his wife, sold them to people in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. The transactions totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.
Lodge’s attorney declined to comment on the case Thursday.
Harvard Medical School terminated Lodge’s employment in May 2023, school officials said following his indictment, calling the activities an “abhorrent betrayal” and “morally reprehensible.” Lodge acted “without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone else” at the institution, the school said.
Several other individuals have also pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains in related cases, including Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, who is awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
