Jonathan Gerlach’s macabre secret: a basement full of 100 skeletons

This man had over 100 sets of human remains in his house. Police discovered his macabre collection after seeing bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near an abandoned cemetery in Philadelphia.

34-year-old Jonathan Christ Gerlach of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested on January 6, 2026, after an investigation that lasted several months revealed one of the most disturbing grave robbery cases in recent American history.

Gerlach faces 500 charges after investigators discovered more than 100 human skeletal remains in his home, with some of the remains 200 years old, and others belonging to newborns.

The investigation started in November 2025, after at least 26 mausoleums and vaults had been forced open at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon, a historic 160-acre burial ground spanning Southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County. Mount Moriah is considered the country’s largest abandoned burial ground, home to an estimated 150,000 grave sites, with burials dating back to 1855.

The bone burglaries started in early November and continued through late December. Both above-ground mausoleums and underground burial vaults were targeted throughout the cemetery. Cemetery staff noticed disturbed gravesites and alerted police, who began documenting a growing pattern of desecration.

Gerlach’s approach to grave robbery was calculated and methodical. He repeatedly targeted underground vaults in December, prying stone and marble slabs out of place to reveal burial chambers 10 to 12 feet below ground. He used a crowbar, ropes to rappel and ladders to climb down into and access caskets.

On Dec. 20 alone, four underground vaults were burglarized, with multiple sets of remains missing from the Slack, Ogden, McCullough and Louber family plots.

A Monster Energy can found in the debris was later processed for DNA and fingerprints.

A crack in the case happened on on Dec. 20, 2025 when a tip identified Jonathan Gerlach as a possible suspect. The tipster reported that witnesses had spotted a “partially decomposed corpse” hanging in the basement of Gerlach’s home in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. The tipster also noted that Gerlach had allegedly claimed he had been “in Chicago, selling a human skull”.

Police checked Gerlach’s vehicle plates and found he had been near Yeadon repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred. Gerlach’s phone was pinged at the cemetery six times from Halloween night of 2025 to Christmas Eve.

On January 6, 2026, detectives set up surveillance at Mount Moriah Cemetery. Around 8 p.m., detectives spotted a vehicle with numerous bones and skulls in the backseat. Gerlach was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar and a burlap bag in which officers found the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.

Gerlach told investigators he took about 30 sets of human remains and showed them the graves he stole from. However, what police discovered next would shock even seasoned investigators.

At Gerlach’s home in Ephrata, investigators found 100 full or partial sets of human remains, including skulls and bones, in the basement. There were also eight separate remains found in a storage locker belonging to Gerlach.

Investigators reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposing torsos and other skeletal items. Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse described the scene: “Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night. This is an unbelievable scene”.

The remains were found in a variety of states, with some hanging and others pieced together. Several skulls were found displayed on a shelf. Some of the remains were 200 years old, while others were much newer, including one with a pacemaker still attached to the body.

Yeadon Police Chief Henry Giammarco, Jr. said: “After 30 years, I can probably say this is the most horrific thing that I’ve seen”.

Investigators discovered that Gerlach was deeply involved in the underground market for human remains. When confronted by detectives, Gerlach said “that he sold some remains on-line but that the vast majority of them were in the basement of his current residence”.

Gerlach’s Instagram account included posts on taxidermy, skeleton collecting and sales, “oddities” and bone museums. Investigators determined Gerlach was a member of a “Human Bones and Skull Selling” group on Facebook and spotted a post in which a member thanked him for selling him an item. His CashApp profile picture showed someone holding what appeared to be a human skull in front of their face.

Online activity tied to Gerlach included 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”.

An Instagram account with the username “deadshitdaddy” was found to contain several of the same images of Gerlach alongside more than 100 images of skulls.

Surprisingly, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, it is not illegal to buy or sell human bones. What is illegal is theft and grave robbery along with interstate trafficking of stolen goods. One Facebook group has more than 5,300 followers, with posts from all over the world and items typically selling for a few hundred dollars. There are also stores where people can buy human bones, and full skeletons can cost as much as $7,000.

Police identified Gerlach as the suspect in a theft at a hardware store in East Earl Township, Pennsylvania, in which a headlamp, an LED rechargeable glow stick, gloves and tools commonly used in burglaries were stolen.

In a separate burglary in Plains Township, Luzerne County, police found human remains wrapped in clear plastic just outside a damaged mausoleum, suggesting Gerlach’s activities may have extended beyond Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Jonathan Gerlach is charged with 26 counts of burglary, 26 counts of criminal trespass, 100 counts of abuse of corpse, 100 counts of receiving stolen property, 26 counts of intentional desecration of public monument and other related offenses.

He remains in Delaware County Prison in lieu of a $1,000,000 bail, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 20.

District Attorney Rouse expressed grief for the families: “I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through it, who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child, because we found remains that we believe to be months-old infants among those that he had collected”.

Investigators will now begin identifying the remains in hopes of returning them to their resting place. Authorities believe it’s possible Gerlach could’ve stolen remains from other cemeteries.

The case has left families with ancestors buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery devastated and searching for answers about whether their loved ones were among those desecrated. As one family member stated: “Of course, there’s anger and sadness. Nobody should be treated this way after life”.