'Horror Movie Come to Life': Pennsylvania Man 'Dug Up Over 100 Bodies in Cemeteries and Tried to Sell the Remains on Facebook'
Jonathan Gerlach is accused of digging up hundreds of bones and skulls from a Pennsylvania cemetery.
Jan. 9 2026, Published 3:20 p.m. ET
A Pennsylvania man faces nearly 500 charges in connection with a string of robberies of human skulls and bones from graves and mausoleums across the state, RadarOnline.com can report.
Jonathan Gerlach was caught in the act after officials discovered the alleged grave robber with a bag of human remains.
'A Horror Movie Come to Life'
Jonathan Gerlach was caught with bones in his backseat.
Delaware County DA Tanner Rouse said in a statement that detectives had been investigating a string of burglarized graves over the past several months at the Mount Moriah Cemetery. On Tuesday, January 6, while patrolling the cemetery, they found Gerlach's car "with numerous bones and skulls in plain view in the back seat."
The 34-year-old was then seen exiting the cemetery holding a burlap bag, crowbar, and other items, and was brought into custody, where he admitted to stealing approximately 30 sets of human remains.
A search of Gerlach's home and storage unit later recovered over 100 full or partial sets of human and skeletal remains, including long bones, mummified hands and feet, and other items.
"Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home," Rouse said. "It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific."
'The Bones Were in Various States'
He was part of a Facebook group that allegedly offered bones for sale.
Rouse explained the bones were in various states: "Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf."
Gerlach has been charged with 496 counts in total, including 100 counts of abuse of corpse, 100 counts of theft by unlawful taking, and 100 counts of receiving stolen property.
He also faces 26 charges, each of burglary, criminal trespass, intentional desecration of a public monument, intentional desecration of a venerated object, intentional desecration of historical lots and burial places, and criminal mischief.
Gerlach was remanded to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, with bail set at $1,000,000.
Bones Selling on Facebook
The cemetery was described as having easy entry points.
The investigation remains ongoing, as authorities do not yet know if any remains were sold by Gerlach or why he collected them.
Detectives are also investigating a Facebook group titled "Human Bones and Skull Selling Group," in which Gerlach was tagged and pictured holding a skull in one of the posts.
A photo on his personal Facebook page featured the suspect sitting on a motorcycle, holding a human skull, with the caption: "riding Harley and slinging skulls."
Another showed him surrounded by different animal carcasses in a makeshift lab, again featuring a skull on the desk. A comment from an apparent friend reads: "This picture hits differently now."
Historical Cemetery
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The bones date back to the Revolutionary War.
The cemetery dates back hundreds of years, and once interred Betsy Ross before her remains were moved. Soldiers from every war since the Revolutionary War are buried there as well.
"Understand, some of these are 200 years old," Rouse said. "Some obviously much newer, there's one with a pacemaker still attached to the body."
Officials called the site an "inviting target" because it has no fence and offers multiple points of easy entry.
Rouse revealed: "I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through it, who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child, because we found remains that we believe to be months-old infants among those that he had collected."
Detectives are still working "to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at. It's going to be quite some time before we have a final answer."
