Jonathan Gerlach, 34, was arrested by police as they spotted him waling out of a gravesite wielding a crowbar - cops claimed they found skulls and remains in his basement and a storage unit
15:02, 09 Jan 2026Updated 15:02, 09 Jan 2026
A man has been charged with stealing more than 100 skulls after a horror discovery was made inside a home.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, was detained after police uncovered bones, mummified hands and feet, decomposing torsos and parts of skeletons in what cops called a "horror movie come to life". The 34-year-old, from Pennsylvania, faces more than 500 charges after he was accused of desecrating gravesites and mausoleums. This terrifying investigation started after reports of break-ins at the Mount Moriah Cemetery, in Yeadon, just outside of Philadelphia.
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said the remains were discovered in Gerlach's basement and a separate storage unit.
He described the horrific site officers came across and said: "They were in various states. Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf."
Cops have claimed Gerlach targeted the 160-acre gravesite, where around 150,000 people have been buried. It is not clear what the suspect was supposedly doing with these remains, some of which were hundreds of years old.
Some of these skulls and remains belonged to children, with some being just a few months old when they died, according to the County District Attorney.
Rouse said: "Very simply, 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.
"Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night. This is an unbelievable scene. Understand, some of these are 200 years old. Some obviously much newer... It's going to be quite some time before we have a final answer."
Authorities added that they also recovered jewellery they believe is linked to the Pennsylvania gravesite. They also said one of the bodies they recovered had a pacemaker.
Rouse added: "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."
Gerlach was arrested on Tuesday night, when cops spotted the suspect leaving the cemetery walking towards his car with a crowbar.
He was found after an investigation that started around Halloween when it was noticed at least 26 mausoleums and vaults at the cemetery had been forced open.
Gerlach has been charged with 300 counts of theft, receiving stolen property and abuse of a corpse, according to court records. Other charges include desecrating a historic burial place and desecrating a public monument.