Harvard Morgue Body Parts Trading Case Headed to Criminal Trial

The prosecution of a Massachusetts woman accused of trading in stolen human remains can go forward, the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said, denying her motion to dismiss the charges.

Federal law that prohibits the transportation of stolen “goods, wares, and merchandise” prohibits interstate transportation of human body parts “when they have been taken without authorization and treated as property by the perpetrator,” the court said.

Katrina Maclean, the owner of “Kat’s Creepy Creations,” argued that she couldn’t be prosecuted for transportation of stolen goods because at common law, human remains aren’t property. But that rule doesn’t apply in cases like this, the court said.

“The core principle governing the treatment of bodies, unwavering for centuries, is that human remains should be treated with great respect or even sanctity, whether from a religious or naturalistic perspective,” Judge Matthew W. Brann said.

Courts have been “increasingly open to accepting that the human body may be considered property if such an approach is necessary to promote that principle,” Brann acknowledged. Existing legal concepts are “poorly positioned” to deal with improper or questionable body markets, he added, and the “common law of dead bodies has devolved into a morass of confused and contradictory results.”

The lack of regulation has been exploited by bad actors, and it’s beyond time to confront the record, the judge said.

Medical School Morgue

Maclean was indicted on June 13, 2023 for conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and interstate transportation of stolen property.

She was, according to prosecutors, a central player in an interstate market for stolen human remains.

The indictment, which the court said was supported by adequate evidence, says Maclean purchased “two dissected faces” from the then-manager of the Harvard Medical School Morgue and sourced and shipped multiple pieces of human skin to at least one client.

Maclean argued that the remains at issue didn’t have a value of $5,000, which is the statue’s jurisdictional amount requirement, because human remains don’t have any compensable value.

But “market value” doesn’t refer to a “theoretical or intrinsic value” and is best measured by prices realized ins ales. Here, prosecutors say Maclean realized a profit of at least $8,800 in her transactions for body parts, Brann said.

Maclean’s codefendants, including the former morgue manager at Harvard, have pleaded guilty.

Maclean is represented by Miele & Rymsza PC.

The case is United States v. Maclean, M.D. Pa., No. 4:23-cr-00159, 7/22/25.