Jonathan Gerlach is a man from Pennsylvania who faces nearly six hundred criminal charges due to multiple grave robberies
According to police reports Jonathan Gerlach home was searched by officers who found a wealth of disturbing items including over a hundred skeletal remains of all ages
Apparently police learned about Jonathan Gerlach after the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon had been hit multiple times with graves being disturbed
After police stopped Jonathan Gerlach vehicle they would find bones and skulls in the vehicle which then led them to search his home where they would find a ton more
After he was arrested Jonathan Gerlach would tell police that he would crack open the coffins using a crowbar
Jonathan Gerlach is in custody where he faces nearly six hundred criminal charges including 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse, theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property; 26 counts of felony burglary; and 52 counts each of felony criminal trespass and misdemeanor intentional desecration
Jonathan Gerlach News
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pa., has been charged with multiple offenses, including burglary and abuse of corpses.
Detectives found bones and skulls in his car during surveillance at Mount Moriah Cemetery.
Detectives Leah Cesanek and Chris Karr, along with other law enforcement officials, led the investigation.
They discovered over 100 sets of human remains at Gerlach’s home and storage unit in Ephrata.
Charges and legal proceedings
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“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home. It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” said District Attorney Tanner Rouse.
He expressed sympathy for those affected by the crimes.
Prosecutors say Gerlach was arrested at the cemetery with a burlap bag containing 30 human remains, many of them children.
A search of his home in Ephrata revealed over 100 human skulls, large bones, and jewelry taken from graves.
Eight more skeletons were found in a nearby storage locker.
Authorities are still piecing together the origins of the remains.
“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,” said Tanner Rouse, Delaware County District Attorney.
Gerlach faces numerous charges, including burglary, criminal trespass, and theft by unlawful taking.
He is currently held at George W. Hill Correctional Facility with bail set at $1 million.
Community reactions and ongoing investigation
Residents near Cobbs Creek Park have noticed graves being disturbed.
Eric Schueler from West Philadelphia said, “We saw some graves that had been obviously opened or disturbed… I always suspected it was some sort of grave robbing.”
Gerlach faces over 450 charges, including burglary, abuse of a corpse, and theft.
Authorities are investigating a possible connection to a Facebook group dedicated to the sale of bones, where Gerlach was allegedly seen holding skulls.
What we don’t know:
The exact purpose of Gerlach’s actions with the remains is unclear, and authorities are working to identify the remains and notify affected families.
Man charged with stealing over 100 skeletal remains from PA cemetery | FOX 29 Philadelphia
Jonathan Gerlach More News
The local man arrested for allegedly stealing human remains from a Philadelphia-area cemetery and storing them in his Ephrata home also admitted to selling some of the remains, according to search warrants.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, is now behind bars and facing more than 500 charges after detectives discovered the remains, including more than 100 skulls, inside a home in the 100 block of Washington Avenue in Ephrata on Wednesday.
CBS 21 obtained search warrants Friday that reveal more about how authorities were able to identify Gerlach as a suspect, along with what was found inside his home and storage facility during searches earlier this week and what he was doing with the stolen remains.
Detectives had already been investigating reports of burglaries from Pennsylvania cemeteries when on Dec. 23, 2025, a tip was submitted to Lancaster City Police Department’s CrimeWatch page suggesting detectives look into Gerlach as a suspect in connection to a mausoleum robbery in Luzerne County.
The tipster told police they know someone who’d recently been in Gerlach’s home and saw a “partially decomposed corpse” hanging in his basement.
The tipster said this happened around the same time the Luzerne County mausoleum was robbed in November, and that Gerlach had also recently been charged with retail thefts in East Earl Township.
The search warrant reveals Gerlach had allegedly stolen items like a headlamp, gloves and a metal cutting wheel, along with other items detectives said were commonly used for burglaries, from a local hardware store.
The tip also directed detectives to Gerlach’s Instagram account, which follows other accounts in taxidermy, skeleton collecting and sales, and the sale of other “oddities.” The tipster also claimed Gerlach had “disappeared for a few days in November,” and said he’d been “in Chicago selling a human skull.”
Jonathan Gerlach’s social media activity
After identifying Gerlach as a suspect, detectives searched through his social media accounts for relevant information.
On Instagram, detectives said Gerlach was following “an abundance of accounts referencing skeleton collecting, corpses, taxidermy, ‘human skull store,’ oddities, and bone museums.”
Detectives also found a Facebook group called “Human Bones and Skull selling group,” where someone thanked Gerlach for a “human skin bag.”
Detectives also found Gerlach on CashApp, where his profile picture showed someone holding what appeared to be a human skull in front of their face.
Searching Gerlach’s home and storage unit
After detectives tracked Gerlach’s phone records and vehicle to the Mount Moriah Cemetery in the Philadelphia area several different times, a detective allegedly caught Gerlach in the act of stealing the remains on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
When confronted by detectives, Jonathan Gerlach said “that he sold some remains on-line but that the vast majority of them were in the basement of his current residence,” at 100 Washington Avenue in Ephrata, according to the search warrant.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, detectives seized the following items from the Ephrata home:
Over 100 human skulls
Numerous human long bones
Mummified human feet and hands
Two decomposing human torsos
Other assorted skeletal items
On Wednesday, detectives also spoke to Gerlach’s fiancé, who reportedly told them that Gerlach had a storage locker at KO Storage, located at 851 E. Main St. in Ephrata.
The storage facility confirmed he had a locker there, but Gerlach did not provide consent for a search for that facility, saying it was just personal items there.
Later that day, however, detectives sent a cadaver dog to the storage unit, and the dog indicated there was an odor of human remains inside the locker.
A search warrant was granted and executed at the storage locker the next day, Jan. 8. From the locker, detectives retrieved: eight human corpses, miscellaneous body parts, ashes, and older jewelry believed to have been removed from graves.
The Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams also told CBS 21 that she received information that Gerlach may have spent time at a local cemetery, but nothing was found to be missing at this time.
Following the investigation, Jonathan Gerlach was arraigned on hundreds of charges Thursday. Court records indicate he remains in Delaware County Prison in lieu of a $1,000,000 bail.
Alleged grave robber admits to selling stolen human remains found in Ephrata home: warrant
