Police say a Pennsylvania man turned a historic cemetery into his personal supply chain, stocking his suburban home and storage unit with more than 100 human skulls and corpses allegedly destined for the online “oddities” market.
Story Snapshot
- Months‑long grave‑robbing spree allegedly hit at least 26 mausoleums and vaults at Mount Moriah Cemetery near Philadelphia.
- Investigators say more than 100 skulls, mutilated remains, and at least eight full corpses were recovered from an Ephrata home and storage unit.
- Court documents allege the suspect admitted stealing about 30 sets of remains and selling some online through bone‑trading communities.
- Prosecutors filed over 500 charges, setting $1 million bail, while families and forensic experts now face the grim work of identifying century‑old victims.
How a Tip About a Hanging Corpse Blew Open a Cemetery Crime Wave
Police in Pennsylvania did not start with a grand conspiracy theory about grave robbers; they started with one chilling tip about a basement. In late December 2025, a Lancaster County tipster told authorities they had seen a “partially decomposed corpse” hanging in the basement of 34‑year‑old Jonathan Gerlach’s Ephrata home and flagged his social‑media footprint, including an alleged trip to Chicago to sell a human skull. That single message forced investigators to ask a blunt question: where were all these bodies coming from?
Detectives were already tracking a pattern of break‑ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon, a sprawling, 19th‑century burial ground on the edge of Philadelphia. Court documents later described a months‑long campaign starting in early November 2025, with more than two dozen mausoleums and underground vaults breached. Families with names like Slack, Ogden, McCullough, and Louber discovered shattered doors and disturbed plots, while police quietly documented missing remains and damaged crypts. The tip naming Gerlach turned a string of baffling vandalism cases into a focused manhunt.
A Rope, a Crowbar, and a Burlap Bag at the Cemetery Gates
Surveillance teams from Yeadon Borough Police and Delaware County investigators began watching Mount Moriah for whoever was targeting its older, more secluded mausoleums. On January 6, 2026, detectives say they finally saw what they had been waiting for: a man later identified as Gerlach leaving the cemetery carrying a burlap bag and a crowbar, with a rope and carabiner suggesting he had rappelled into deep, 10‑foot mausoleums. When officers stopped his vehicle, they reported seeing bones and skulls inside, a visual that ripped this case straight out of the realm of rumor.
Court affidavits say that, after his arrest, Gerlach admitted stealing about 30 sets of human remains from Mount Moriah and acknowledged selling some online, while claiming “the vast majority” were stored in his basement. That admission, if proven in court, lays bare a level of calculation that goes far beyond adolescent vandalism. It reflects a mindset that treats the dead not as people, but as inventory. From a conservative perspective rooted in respect for the dead and property rights, that attitude erodes basic civic norms that hold a community together.
The Ephrata House of Bones and the Storage Unit of Corpses
The day after the arrest, investigators executed a search warrant at Gerlach’s home in Ephrata, about an hour and a half from Mount Moriah. Police say the basement resembled a macabre warehouse: more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, and at least two decomposing torsos were recovered. Neighbors who thought they lived on a quiet street suddenly learned that century‑old remains from a historic cemetery had allegedly been ferried past their front porches and stashed next door.
Detectives then followed another lead, this time from Gerlach’s fiancée, who told them he kept a storage unit at KO Storage in Ephrata. A cadaver dog alerted at the site, prompting a second warrant. Inside, police say they found eight corpses, additional body parts, urn ashes, and grave jewelry. The picture that emerges from these searches is not a one‑off desecration but an alleged system: cemetery as source, home as processing site, storage as overflow. Law enforcement now must untangle that system while families wait for word about whether their ancestors are among the dead recovered.
Online “Oddities,” Human Dignity, and the Question No One Wants to Ask
Search‑warrant documents describe a digital paper trail running through bone‑collecting and “oddities” communities. Investigators say Gerlach followed Instagram accounts devoted to taxidermy and skeletons, joined a Facebook “Human Bones and Skull” selling group, and used a Cash App account with a skull as its profile image. References in records to a possible “human skin bag” underscore how far some corners of that market have strayed from any recognizable notion of respect for the dead. The case raises a hard question: how much of this trade exists because platforms and buyers quietly look the other way?
Prosecutors in Delaware County responded with scale equal to the alleged crimes. Gerlach now faces more than 500 counts, including burglary, abuse of corpse, and desecration of venerated objects, and is held on $1 million bail in Delaware County Prison. That charging strategy reflects not only the volume of disturbed graves, but a value judgment: in a society built on ordered liberty, you protect both the living and the dead from commodification. Families with names etched into stone at Mount Moriah have made that point bluntly, reminding the public that “when they lived, they had a life, they mattered,” regardless of how long ago they died.
Sources:
Alleged grave robber admits to selling stolen human remains found in Ephrata home (CBS21/KOMO)
