A Pennsylvania man’s months-long grave robbing spree has exposed a grotesque underground market where human remains are sold online like collectibles, revealing how abandoned cemeteries have become hunting grounds for criminals who desecrate our ancestors for profit.
Story Highlights
- Jonathan Gerlach charged with 500+ counts after police found 100+ skulls and eight corpses in his home
- Admitted to selling stolen human remains online through “oddities” markets on social media platforms
- Targeted America’s largest abandoned cemetery, exploiting poor security at historic burial sites
- Used rappelling equipment and crowbars to break into sealed mausoleums and underground vaults
Criminal Enterprise Exposed Through Digital Evidence
Jonathan Christ Gerlach operated a calculated grave robbing scheme that spanned multiple counties and leveraged social media to profit from desecrated remains. Police tracked his phone records and vehicle to Mount Moriah Cemetery during break-ins occurring between November 2025 and January 2026. The 34-year-old Ephrata man followed Instagram accounts dedicated to taxidermy, skeleton collecting, and “oddities” sales, using these networks to market stolen human bones.
Court documents reveal Gerlach traveled to Chicago specifically to sell a human skull, demonstrating the interstate nature of this macabre trade. A tipster reported seeing a decomposed corpse hanging in his basement, linking him to retail thefts of burglary tools including headlamps, gloves, and cutting wheels. This systematic approach shows how modern technology enables criminals to monetize acts that violate basic human dignity and respect for the dead.
Unprecedented Scale of Cemetery Desecration
Police discovered an shocking inventory of human remains spread across Gerlach’s Ephrata home and storage unit. The basement of his Washington Avenue residence contained over 100 skulls, numerous long bones, mummified hands and feet, plus two decomposing torsos. Additional searches at KO Storage revealed eight complete corpses, miscellaneous body parts, cremated ashes, and vintage jewelry stolen from graves.
Investigators documented break-ins at 26 mausoleums and vaults at Mount Moriah Cemetery, with remains stolen from family plots including the Slack, Ogden, McCullough, Louber, Campbell, Ziegler, Hasson, and Charlton families. On December 20, 2025, four underground vaults were burglarized in a single night. Gerlach admitted to stealing approximately 30 sets of remains from Mount Moriah alone, though evidence suggests his activities extended to Luzerne County and potentially other locations.
Targeting America’s Most Vulnerable Cemetery
Mount Moriah Cemetery represents everything wrong with how we’ve abandoned our heritage sites to criminals and decay. Founded in 1855, this 160-acre Philadelphia-area cemetery holds an estimated 150,000 burials but has deteriorated into what experts call America’s largest abandoned burial ground. The nonprofit Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery volunteers to maintain portions of the site, but large areas remain vulnerable to exploitation due to inadequate funding and security.
Gerlach used rappelling equipment to access mausoleums and pried open sealed underground vaults, demonstrating how criminals exploit infrastructure neglect at historic sites. When police arrested him on January 6, 2026, he was leaving Mount Moriah with a crowbar and burlap bag containing mummified remains of two children plus three additional skulls. This targeting of defenseless burial sites shows complete disregard for the families who invested their savings to provide dignified final resting places for loved ones.
Sources:
100 skulls and mummified body parts found in a Pennsylvania grave robbery case, police say
Ephrata man Jonathan Gerlach admits to selling human remains stolen from PA cemetery
