Man charged after 100 sets of human remains found in basement
A man from Pennsylvania has been charged after a horrific grave robbery, whereby more than 100 pieces of human remains were found in his possession.
The 34-year-old man, named Jonathan Gerlach, is now facing 100 counts of abuse of a corpse and multiple counts of burglary, theft, trespassing, and desecration.
Gerlach had allegedly obtained human skulls, bones, mummified feet, headless torsos, and other corpse parts in his car, his home, and his storage locker.
The local prosecutor described the case as “a horror movie come to life.” The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that one of the skeletons that Gerlach had taken still had a pacemaker attached.
On January 8th, investigators told reporters that the motive for this obscene grave robbery is still unclear: “We are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from and how many we are looking at,” Delaware County District Attorney, Tanner Rouse, revealed.
Gerlach would have had to force his way into a minimum of 26 mausoleums and underground burial vaults at Mount Moriah Cemetery in the Delaware County community of Yeadon to obtain the number of corpses that investigators found.
One corpse in his possession belonged to Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia seamstress credited with sewing the first US flag.
When Gerlach was arrested, he was seen leaving Mount Moriah with a crowbar and a burlap sack. Reportedly, a number of bones and skulls were easily identifiable in the back seat area of his vehicle.
The burlap sack on his person contained two children’s mummified remains, three skulls, and several loose bones. At his home in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, human remains were discovered hanging from the ceiling.
Yeadon police chief Henry Giammarco remarked of the unbelievable sight, “I can say this is probably the most horrific thing that I’ve seen.”
Gerlach is being held in lieu of $1million bail and is set to appear in court on January 20th.