Foreword – all joking apart about this being a “steel crime”, these crimes are gross as hell.
Authorities in Pennsylvania have arrested Jonathan Gerlach, a 34-year-old Ephrata resident, following the invention of greater than 100 human stays allegedly stolen from a historic cemetery and saved in his dwelling and a close-by storage unit. Regulation enforcement officers described the case as some of the disturbing investigations they’ve ever encountered.
Based on 8WGAL and NBC Philadelphia, the investigation started after repeated burglaries have been reported at Mount Moriah Cemetery, a sprawling burial floor spanning Yeadon Borough and Philadelphia with graves relationship again to 1855. Between November 2025 and January 6, 2026, investigators say 26 mausoleums and underground burial vaults have been damaged into or desecrated.
On the evening of January 6, detectives conducting surveillance at Mount Moriah noticed a car parked close to the cemetery with bones and skulls seen inside. The motive force was later recognized as Gerlach. Police say he was then seen exiting the cemetery carrying a burlap bag, crowbar, and different instruments. Contained in the bag have been two mummified stays of babies, three skulls, and extra bones.
Gerlach was taken into custody on the scene. Courtroom paperwork allege he admitted to utilizing a crowbar to pry open underground vaults and take away stays. Extra bones have been discovered inside his Toyota RAV4, which was parked close by.
Following the arrest, police executed a search warrant at Gerlach’s dwelling on Washington Avenue in Ephrata, Lancaster County. Contained in the basement, investigators uncovered over 100 full or partial units of human stays, together with skeletons, skulls, unfastened bones, and decaying torsos. Authorities additionally recovered eight further our bodies from a close-by storage locker rented by Gerlach.
“There have been so many who they have been in numerous states,” mentioned Delaware County District Lawyer Tanner Rouse. “Some have been hanging. Some have been pieced collectively. Some have been simply skulls on a shelf.”
Officers confirmed that a minimum of 25 of the stays originated from Mount Moriah Cemetery. Some have been over a century outdated, whereas others appeared far newer, together with one physique that also had a pacemaker connected. Investigators additionally reported discovering toddler and little one stays, some believed to be solely months outdated.
“That is really, in essentially the most literal sense of the phrase, horrific,” Rouse mentioned. “Detectives walked right into a horror film come to life.”
Yeadon Police Chief Henry Giammarco, a veteran officer of 30 years, echoed the sentiment, stating, “That is in all probability essentially the most horrific factor that I’ve seen.”
Authorities say Gerlach’s cellphone data positioned him at Mount Moriah Cemetery six occasions between Halloween evening and Christmas Eve of 2025. Investigators are additionally analyzing whether or not the thefts could also be linked to an identical case in Luzerne County, in addition to Gerlach’s on-line exercise, together with social media teams the place human stays might have been purchased, offered, or traded.
Gerlach now faces a staggering record of fees, together with:
- 26 counts of housebreaking
- 26 counts of prison trespass
- 100 counts of abuse of a corpse
- 100 counts of receiving stolen property
- 26 counts of intentional desecration of a public monument, together with different associated offenses
He’s at present being held at Delaware County Jail after failing to submit $1 million bail. A preliminary listening to is scheduled for January 20, 2026. Courtroom data don’t record an lawyer representing him presently.
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