A Pennsylvania man who had about 100 sets of human remains in his possession is charged with stealing from a graveyard near Philadelphia, police say.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, was arrested on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Jan. 6, around 8 p.m., Yeadon Police Department Detective Leah Cesanek and Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Detective Chris Karr were surveilling the Mt. Moriah Cemetery.
While there, the pair discovered “numerous bones and skulls” in “plain view” in the backseat of Gerlach’s car.
“Gerlach was then seen exiting the cemetery holding a burlap bag, crow bar and other assorted items,” Rouse alleged in the statement.
Gerlach was then taken into custody, and police say he admitted to stealing approximately 30 sets of human remains.
According to Rouse, authorities then executed a search of Gerlach’s Ephrata, Pennsylvania, home, where they allegedly found hundreds of skeletal remains.
Officers also uncovered numerous other long bones, mummified hands and feet, decomposing torsos and skeletal items at the home of Jonathan Gerlach, 34, and a storage unit he owned.
“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,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night. This is an unbelievable scene,” Rouse said, according to the news release.
Rouse further alleged that some of the human remains were those of children, including remains belonging to months-old infants, according to ABC 6. He also claimed that some of the remains were 200 years old, while others were “much newer.”
Rouse alleged that the detectives recovered “an awful lot of bones,” and are still working “to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at,” per the outlet. “It’s going to be quite some time before we have a final answer.”
It follows an investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Yeadon, in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Police allege that Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the 160-acre site, which is home to an estimated 150,000 graves.
Authorities said they also recovered jewellery believed to be linked to the graves. In one case, a pacemaker was still attached.
It is unclear what Gerlach is alleged to have been doing with the remains, Mr Rouse added, noting that some of them were hundreds of years old.
On Thursday, Jan. 8, Gerlach was subsequently charged with 496 counts, including 100 counts of abuse of corpse, 100 counts of theft by unlawful taking and 100 counts of receiving stolen property.
The remaining 196 counts include 26 counts of burglary, 26 counts of criminal trespass, 26 counts of intentional desecration of a public monument, 26 counts of intentional desecration of a venerated object, 26 counts of intentional desecration of historical lots and burial places, and 26 counts of criminal mischief.
Gerlach also faces 7 counts of “defiant trespasser — fenced/enclosed,” and 7 counts of “defiant trespasser — posted.”
