Law enforcement officials can sometimes grapple with the most abhorrent and horrific side of humanity.
Even so, authorities in Pennsylvania recently stumbled on a scene that even they could barely fathom.
According to Fox News, a Pennsylvania man has been charged with a staggering number of offenses after investigators say they uncovered more than 100 full or partial sets of human and skeletal remains inside his residence and a nearby storage facility.
Authorities identified the suspect as 34-year-old Jonathan Gerlach of Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors say the remains were recovered during the execution of search warrants tied to an ongoing investigation into stolen human remains.
The case began as an inquiry into repeated reports of vandalized graves and disturbed mausoleums at Mount Moriah Cemetery, located just outside Philadelphia. Law enforcement officials believe Gerlach is connected to a series of burglaries targeting burial sites at the historic cemetery.
According to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, evidence gathered during that investigation ultimately led police to Gerlach’s home and a storage unit, where the remains were allegedly found.
🚨DISTURBING NEWS🚨
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested for the theft of over 100 human skeletons.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, from Ephrata, faces numerous charges, including burglary, abuse of corpse, and desecration of venerated objects.
During surveillance at Mount Moriah… pic.twitter.com/UfrV2Dh2rs
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) January 9, 2026
Gerlach is now facing over 500 charges, including 100 charges each of abuse of corpse, theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property.
District Attorney Tanner Rouse didn’t mince words when describing the scene during a Thursday news conference.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved, from myself, to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at — quite literally — none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”
“Detectives have recovered an awful lot of bones at this point, and we are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from and how many we are looking at, and it’s going to be quite some time before we have a final answer,” the D.A. continued.
Disturbingly, he said some of the bones were hundreds of years old and some of the remains belonged to babies just a few months old.
Pennsylvania grave robber Jonathan Christ Gerlach stole more than 100 skulls, body parts from cemetery: police https://t.co/BkNA8tD2wD pic.twitter.com/xozO0zoD8X
— New York Post (@nypost) January 9, 2026
Local ABC affiliate WPVI-TV further reported that the first reported burglary occurred on Nov. 7.
Gerlach reportedly spent months “rappelling into mausoleums, prying open underground vaults and removing human remains dating back more than a century before selling some of them online,” according to the station.
“Investigators later uncovered online activity tied to Gerlach, including posts in a ‘Human Bones and Skull selling group,’ where a buyer thanked him for mailing ‘a possible teen’ and ‘a baboon and a monkey.’ Other social media posts showed Gerlach posing with a skull, captioned, ‘riding a Harley, and slinging skulls.’”
Those who have loved ones buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery are, understandably, left nearly speechless.
“It’s a lot of questions, and I don’t know who to turn to,” one woman said.
She added, “It’s the last thing we can do for people is to honor their wishes, and to not disturb them. I just can’t understand why somebody would do that.”
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