A Massachusettes artist allegedly bought human remains from a Harvard Medical School morgue manager and then showed off her gruesome purchases on Instagram.
Boston-based dollmaker Katrina Maclean — who claims to make “creations that shock the mind and shake the soul” — shared a picture on her social media storefront of a “real human skull” that she allegedly bought off morgue manager Cedric Lodge.
The February 2020 post featured a “killer clown” doll with a skull between its fingers, Mass Live reported.
“This doll has been sold and yes that is a real human skull,” Maclean shared on the page for her shop, Kat’s Creepy Creations.”If you’re in the market for human bones hit me up!”
Maclean, 44, and Lodge, 55, were among seven charged Wednesday in connection to an underground network that robbed corpses at Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gifts Program and an Arkansas mortuary and crematorium.
Federal prosecutors allege that Lodge stole multiple remains — including the bodies of two stillborn infants — and sold them online with the help of his wife, Denise, 63, to Maclean and three other men between 2018 and March 7.
Lodge is accused of abducting portions of multiple cadavers that had been donated to the elite university, such as heads, brains, skin, and bones.
The morgue manager also allowed Maclean to visit the morgue and pick out the body parts she hoped to use for her creepy artwork — including two desiccated faces she bought for $600, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors claim Maclean was also responsible for reselling the human remains to others charged in the demented body parts smuggling ring. The artist allegedly hired Pennsylvania man Jeremy Pauley to tan stolen skin into leather and paid him in additional skin parts as payment.
Maclean texted Pauley after mailing the human hides because she “wanted to make sure it got to you and I don’t expect agents at my door.”
It is not clear how many stolen human remains Maclean included in her artwork or posted on her social media account — which has since been deleted.
The artist routinely shared images of her reconstructed dolls that she sold at markets, expos and a Salem consignment store.
She transformed dolls into killer clowns, devils, zombies, ghosts and more. Various dolls were made to appear bloodied and have open wounds or cracked skin.
“Meet the maker! I’m Kat, I like to turn regular porcelain dolls into nightmare fuel,” she wrote in a 2020 post.
“I joke with my friends and say that my superpower is ‘the ability to creepify’ Art and creating is my passion and my therapy …Thanks for supporting my twisted creations and I look forward to meeting more of you at upcoming events.”
According to Maclean, she began creating her “horror dolls” in 2018 — the same year prosecutors believe the black market human remains sales kicked off.
