Category: News

Documents released Friday offer new detail on how investigators assembled their striking case against Jonathan Christian Gerlach, who authorities say desecrated dozens of graves to steal human remains.

Gerlach, 34, who is charged with stealing more than 100 skulls, bones, and body parts from Mount Moriah Cemetery, also posted dozens of photos of human remains on social media, records show, and authorities are investigating whether he may have offered to sell them.

The investigation into Gerlach, who lives in Ephrata, spans multiple counties and law enforcement agencies. The historic cemetery stretches across Philadelphia and Yeadon, Delaware County, where officials charged Gerlach on Thursday.

Gerlach’s lawyer, Anna Hinchman, declined to comment Friday, citing the pending criminal case.

In all, Gerlach faces more than 500 counts of burglary, criminal trespassing, abuse of a corpse, theft, and related crimes.

“After 30 years, I can say this is probably the most horrific thing that I’ve seen,” said Yeadon Police Chief Henry Giammarco, whose department was involved in the investigation.

Grave sites damaged, remains stolen

Detectives were first dispatched to the burial ground on Nov. 7, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Gerlach’s arrest. There, a board member of the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery — the group that helps to maintain the burial ground — led the investigators to a mausoleum where a hole in protective cinder blocks revealed a damaged marble floor, 10 feet underground. A white rope, which detectives believe the thief used to rappel into the mausoleum, hung nearby.

They discovered other disturbed burial sites, both that afternoon and weeks later, according to the affidavit: a crypt with its marble entrance stone ripped off, whatever was inside stolen; a damaged, empty casket inside a mausoleum; a clear plastic tarp covering human remains discarded on the ground of the cemetery.

Investigators collected clues, including the rope, a “Monster” energy drink can, and a partially smoked Marlboro Menthol cigarette. Each will be sent for DNA testing, the affidavit said.

On Dec. 23, the document shows, police received a tip pointing to Gerlach. “Look into Jonathan Gerlach,” the tipster said, according to the affidavit. “I know someone who’s friends with his family, and they mentioned that they recently discovered a partially decomposed corpse hanging in his basement, but were afraid to tell police.”

The tipster also pointed investigators to Instagram. “You’ll see he follows accounts in taxidermy, skeleton collecting and sales,” the tipster said.

An Instagram trail

The last post on the Instagram account that Delaware County authorities have linked to Gerlach appeared on Tuesday, the day that detectives took him into custody, after they say they witnessed him carrying a burlap sack filled with human remains out of the cemetery.

A partial skull — its surface darkened and pitted with age, mounted upright like an artifact — appears in the post. Staged against a floral backdrop, the photo is paired with a caption that reads: “if you know, you know. skulls/bones available. dm to inquire.”

The post and dozens of others like it on the account suggest that Gerlach may have been part of a largely unregulated and little-known marketplace in which human bones and remains are bought and sold online and in specialty shops. It’s a trade that can be legal under certain circumstances in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, and one that records suggest Gerlach may have engaged with — though investigators have not confirmed he ever successfully made a sale.

Authorities say the investigation is continuing.

Gerlach is charged with crimes associated with how authorities say he acquired the bones: by breaking into the cemetery’s mausoleums and underground vaults and stealing the remains.

Investigators tied Gerlach’s vehicle to license plate readers near Mount Moriah, they said, and his cell phone to the area. A search of his recent purchases revealed trips to a hardware store to buy items that matched those that detectives had also recovered at damaged grave sites, including a stake.

When detectives executed a search warrant at Gerlach’s home, in the 100 block of Washington Avenue, they said they found skulls arranged on shelves, and a collection of other bones, skeletons and mummified body parts, including feet and hands. They also found a torso hanging from the ceiling, said Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse.

Potential sales, and a call for change

Rouse and Detective Christopher Karr said law enforcement officials are aware of social media accounts associated with Gerlach and are investigating what, if any, connection they may have to his alleged crimes.

Rouse said accounts linked to Gerlach “certainly seemed to indicate” that Gerlach had attempted to sell the remains. “But whether that was real or not — whether a sale had ever been consummated — we can’t say for sure,” he said.

The Instagram account, which dates back to 2023, includes images of human remains arranged on shelves and tables, or held in a man’s hands. Its posts raise questions about whether Gerlach’s alleged activity extended beyond what authorities have detailed so far.

Investigators are working to determine when and where the images were taken and whether any of the items pictured were stolen from Mount Moriah, Rouse said.

In addition to a curator and potential salesperson, the Instagram account presents Gerlach as a forensic practitioner and professional.

In a recent post that pictured Gerlach holding a skull fragment beneath his heavily tattooed neck, the account’s operator wrote that he was completing a certification in forensic and osteological analysis, and planned to offer analysis through a planned company — describing services that would assess human remains using academic and forensic standards.

Gerlach is being held in the Delaware County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

The investigation into Gerlach remains ongoing, Yeadon Borough Mayor Rohan Hepkins said Friday. Gerlach is suspected of burglarizing additional cemeteries, including in Ephrata, said Hepkins, who also sits on the board of the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery and said he helped to bring the case to police.

In a written statement, the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery thanked law enforcement officials but declined to comment.

Hepkins expressed dismay that the legal trade of human remains is even possible, and called for reform. “People never conceived that people would be stealing bones from graves and selling them in the market,” he said. “Politicians need to understand there is a type of individual out there — or a market out there — where legislation has to catch up with what’s happening out there.

“It’s a bad situation but a lot of good, preventive maintenance could come out of it,” he added.