Bones and skulls that turned up in the back seat of a car near an abandoned cemetery on the outskirts of Philadelphia led police to a basement filled with body parts, which authorities say a man now accused of stealing about 100 sets of human remains was storing.
Officers say Tuesday night’s arrest capped a month-long investigation into the break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, where at least 26 shrines and crypts have been opened since early November.
Investigators later searched the home and storage unit of Jonathan Christ Gerlach, 34, in Ephrata, and reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposed torsos and other skeletal objects.
“They were in different states. Some of them were hanging. Some of them were sectioned off and some of them were just skulls on a shelf,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Ross said.
Most of them were in the basement, authorities said, and they also found jewelry believed to be linked to the graves. In one case, the pacemaker was still connected.
Police say Gerlach targeted the mausoleums and underground vaults at the 1855 Cemetery. It is considered the largest abandoned cemetery in the country, according to the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, which helps preserve Landmark 160 acres Yeadon has an estimated 150,000 grave sites.
Police were looking into the string of burglaries when a detective checked Gerlach’s license plates and found that he had been near Yeadon frequently during the period in which the burglaries occurred. Police say the break-ins have focused on closed crypts and mausoleums containing older burials, whose stonework has been smashed or damaged to access the remains inside.
Police said he was arrested as he was returning to his car with a crowbar and a burlap bag in which officers found the mummified remains of two young children, three skulls and other bones.
Police said Gerlach told investigators he took about 30 sets of human remains and showed them the graves he had stolen from.
“Given the enormity of what we’re looking at and the complete lack of a plausible explanation, it’s hard to say right now, at this point, exactly what happened. We’re trying to figure it out,” Ross told reporters.
Gerlach was charged with 100 counts of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, along with multiple counts of desecration of a public monument, desecration of a venerable object, desecration of a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing, and theft.
He was jailed on $1 million bail. No attorney is listed in court records. A text message seeking comment was sent to an associated mobile phone.